I buy the metal from Cookson Precious Metals, a certified member of the Responsible Jewellery Council. Rather than recycling directly in my workshop, I leave it to the experts who can refine the metal in a way that it has no nickel or cadmium. It arrives by post 100% recycled, clean and ready to use.

I source the chains from the UK, they come from Curteis. I adore that they make chains in the UK from recycled silver but this has become complicated with Brexit so I’m looking for a supplier in the EU. It’s important to me that the chains are good quality, made in Europe and recycled so I’m not in a rush. When the moment is right, I’m sure I’ll find them.

I work with independent gem suppliers with good traceability and ethics. Capricorn Gems, Moyo Gems and Nineteen48 are a few of the projects I love, although I have many more.

The reason I need a variety of gem suppliers is because each provider has a limited supply of stones so I may need to contact multiple suppliers to find the particular stone, shape or size needed for the dream piece of jewellery I have in mind.

Gemstones are found all over the world but I’m really select with geographical locations. I favour countries which have laws in place to protect the people and the land. Mines are complex working areas and there are lots of considerations like bio residue management and re-wilding of the land.

Sri Lanka has excellent legislation in place to protect the land, North America and Australia have a lot of safety regulations to protect the workers. Hence why I work a lot with sapphires - because they come from these three places.

I completely avoid gemstones from countries like Afghanistan (Taliban led), Madagascar (child workers). I don’t doubt that there may be small scale, ethical mines in these places where the workers are taken care of but at this point in my small business, I just don’t have the contacts or assurance.

Ultimately it depends on the project and transparency, but if in doubt, I leave it out.

I’ve always said to my customers on the side that I find combining the word ‘sustainable’ with metalwork problematic. Metalwork requires two things which are finite (metal and gas) so I feel that using the word sustainable is a form of greenwashing. And that goes for your metal pans, drink flasks, door handles, lamps. All metal products require heat to be worked.

However that said, I stand firm that you can create jewellery responsibly. The metal is not wasted, its existance is circular, it absolutely can and will be recycled one day in the future. This has been the story of metal since humans began working with it.

The production is very small scale, since I make everything by hand, I go really slowly. Meaning that the carbon emissions are actually quite low. To put it into perspective, I’m using less than 7kg of butane a year at the moment. That equates to 20kg of carbon emissions, that’s the same carbon emission as a 70 mile car journey. Since I’m acutely aware that you can’t just offset and forget about it, I offset a greater amount of 1000kg of emissions per tank. (And I’m just gonna add here, this is why we need more women in business because we see the bigger picture!)

I would absolutely love to get the B Corp certification but you have to pay for it and as a one woman show, working to keep the Musa Mundi boat afloat, I just have other priorities. I will get there eventually, it’s on my list.