Interview with Christian Cheesman

This month Sussex Life magazine interviewed CRED's Christian Cheesman. We thought that writer Jenny Mark-Bell did such a great job of telling our story that we asked them to let us reproduce the article here.

Christian Cheesman, right, is the Business Director of CRED Jewellery, which opened its first shop in 1999 in support of its sister organisation, the CRED Foundation. Greg Valerio, a Chichester local, founded the organisation to aid community development projects overseas. “We used to sell trinkets we had brought back to the UK to cover our flights and eventually we decided to try and open a shop to raise money for the foundation” says Christian. The most promising product they had was silver jewellery, and in embarking on retail CRED began to research the provenance of the products that they were selling to ensure the the shop’s integrity as a fundraising concern.

The company commissioned a report from Greenwich University on the jewellery supply chain, mapping out the challenges. “To be honest, we nearly ran away at that point, thinking the project was impossible, but it was through the research process that we met our mining partners, Oro Verde” says Christian. Colombian partner organisation Oro Verde was the first mining collective to comply with rigorous standards of social and environmental responsibility. “When we first met them they were desperately trying to find a company that was willing to pay a premium for that level of certification.” Delighted to find a supplier that shared their high ideals, CRED entered into what would become the core partnership of CRED Jewellery, enabling the company to become the first European retailer to sell independently certified Fair Trade gold, and the first high street boutique to sell exclusively ethical jewellery.

CRED remains a campaigning organisation, and founder Greg left the business this year to focus on work with the fair trade labelling organisation. “We are really trying to demonstrate a that our business model works, and we want to encourage designers and manufacturers to adopt fair trade metals. We are facilitating our competition in some ways” says Christian. Because gold is far more advanced in terms of certification than diamonds and gemstones, the supply chain is still a work in progress. “At the moment we offer the best diamonds we could find. They are not coming from small-scale miners, which would be our ideal, but we are able to trace them right back to the mines.” The stones come from Australian, Namibian or Canadian sources, and CRED can tell their clients where they were cut and finished. “We have a chain of custody on them but it is large-scale and not where we want to end up. For us transparency is the big overarching principle. We are very open with people about our strengths and weaknesses, and where we are on this journey.”

CRED’s two in-house designers (Head of Design Annabel Panes and Christian himself) offer a personal design service, with prices starting at £600 for a wedding band, and stone set jewellery ranging from £1250 to £1500. The first stage is an initial consultation which can be in the Chichester store or, for international customers, by telephone or email. At this point, the scope of the design and what the customer is looking for. “We are very good at working to a budget, so if somebody’s got a price that they are looking to spend we will do what we can to hit it. We then create the designs using a computer program at real size, so the client is presented with a very realistic impression of the jewellery from a few different angles. This means it is very clear what they are commissioning before they ‘push the button’”, says Christian.

The bespoke service is very popular, with commissions ranging from engagement rings to pendants, and CRED are currently exploring offering a higher end design service with more personal contact, starting at around £15,000. Most of the time people have an idea in mind but don’t have the ability to express it, which is where CRED’s design experience comes in, says Christian. “We know what you can and can’t do with jewellery, so we can prompt people to get a clear idea of what they are looking for, and then help them to create it. I don’t think there’s anything we can’t do.”

This post originally appeared in Sussex Life magazine. Reproduced with permission.

On the blogs

The Big Boob Survey event with Daisy Green went down a storm last week. Check out the Ethical Heaven blog for the lowdown, and be sure to drop by Daisy Green for your chance to win that Annabel Panes necklace.

Also on the blogs this week, Niki at the Wedding Notebook is hoping that Livia Firth's ethical dressing challenge for the current awards season extends to ethical jewellery. We hope so too, and we're glad Niki thinks Annabel's Penelope collection would work so well on the catwalk!

Is the Moon made of Cheese?

CRED Founder and Fairtrade agitator Greg Valerio has used his new blog to talk about the ongoing campaign for truly ethical jewellery and his reasons for moving on from CRED. It's a great, engaging and informative post, and he's graciously allowed us to reproduce it here:

As many readers of this column will know, recently I decided to resign my directorship of CRED Jewellery the fair trade jewellery company that I founded in 1996. This was a big decision for me and the team that we had discussed many times over the past year. I am very proud of what we achieved over the years. For me personally the objective was always to prove that fair trade high-end jewellery was possible. From the outset there was a clear social objective. In April 2009 this social objective was achieved when the Chichester boutique finally converted all its gold, diamonds and coloured gem stones to traceable sources. A first for the UK high street.

This traceability challenge became apparent very early on in the journey and in truth became the defining issue for me. If I could not look my customer in the eye and tell them where the gold came from, or where the diamond had been mined, how could I with any integrity claim to be ‘ethical’?
It is a very difficult task to define ethical as it is always interpreted as a very subjective reality. The moral consensus around the foundations of ethics is the principle of reciprocity, the idea that you should do to others what you would like done to yourself. In the jewellery trade this is an extremely difficult challenge as the only way you can measure the truth of this statement is if you fully understand the network of relationships that you or your business is linked to and the balance of power that may exist within those relationships. The blood diamond story that broke in the late 90’s perfectly demonstrates this reality. Most jewellers were on a moral level horrified at what was happening, yet struggled to make the connection between their family run business and the killing fields of Sierra Leone or Angola. But the uncomfortable truth was that we were linked through our economic relationships.

Fast forward a few years and the principles of ‘ethical reciprocity’ are more relevant than ever. In September I attended with some friends from The Fairtrade Foundation, the Great Debate at Earls Court hosted by The Birmingham Assay Office. In my hand I held a gold ring that had a fairtrade ‘makers mark’ stamped inside. The gold in that ring had come from Oro Verde, a pioneering gold mining community in Colombia that has been foundational to the creation of the emerging fairtrade gold certification system. An example of a fully traceable supply chain that demonstrates we do not have to live with the darkness and secrecy of where our materials come from anymore.

A further illustration of the flip side came in the summer when I received a call from CBS news’s flagship investigative documentary 60 Minutes. They were making a film on the gold supply chain and where struggling to track the gold that was coming into the USA. They got as far as the middle-east and then the trail went cold. Their researchers had come to the conclusion themselves that without physical traceability you cannot make any ethical claims at all.

Ethical reciprocity is not easy, it is a truly complicated challenge to us. When you think about it, how does a stock market listed large-scale mining (LSM) company wish to be treated? If the mining company cannot answer this question, it cannot engage in any meaningful dialogue around how it should treat others. This is not to say that every LSM gold or diamond mining company is bad or unethical, it is purely making the point that the gap in experience, purpose, identity and expectation from the communities that may be impacted by their activities is a vast and a difficult one to bridge.

This ethical chasm in expectation is often filled with charitable activity. A good friend of mine lives in northern Tanzania and as a dentist he fulfils a number of contracts with the mining companies in the local community. For him it is very rewarding work, yet he has often commented about what will happen when the mine runs dry and the company leaves, as the communities who live there will now have the burden of a huge hole in the ground and the added negative environmental issues that are always left as well. This more often than not means the local community is worse off than when the mine first arrived.

Another way the industry deals with this ethical gap is to say that physical traceability is either not possible or impractical. In my opinion a smoke screen falsely created to get us off the ethical hook of supply chain responsibility and integrity. Indeed at the Great Debate a comment from the floor was that ‘it is impossible to achieve’. The reason why we know the moon is not made of cheese is that we have travelled there and brought back proof that the beautiful face that smiles on us every night is in fact made of rock. To say it is not possible to offer traceability to jewellers is a dis-proven theory like the flat earth theory or the pseudo science of creationism. However the impracticalities of refashioning and structuring a supply chain along traceable lines cannot be underestimated. It is a huge ask for all of us and I am under no illusions as to the difficulties, yet it is a challenge worth taking up.

In conclusion my resignation from CRED Jewellery was motivated by this reality. CRED may have proved concept but now the real challenge is to move the campaign up a gear. The jewellery industry in Britain can lead the way internationally in this respect as we have the maturist ethical debate taking place in this country and also the strongest fledgling intentional ethical and fair trade jewellery sector.

This post originally appeared on GregValerio.com. Reproduced with permission.

Win an Annabel Panes necklace with CRED and Daisy Green

CRED are teaming up with eco-chic online magazine Daisy Green to host an event at the Big Swish clothes swap in London this week. Our founder and Fairtrade man-of-the-hour Greg Valerio will be speaking at the launch of Daisy Green's Big Green Boob Survey at Tiger Tiger, Picadilly, London.

We will be sending a collection of beautiful, ethical jewellery along with Greg, including a stunning Mali necklace, which we will be giving away. For free. We know, we're mad.

Mali is a collection of beautiful pieces designed by our very own Annabel Panes in satin-finished 100% Recycled Silver. The collection takes inspiration from the turns and tributaries of the Niger delta, echoing the meandering water in the repeating motifs. The Mali necklace hangs on a 40" chain, and would normally retail for £180

To be in with a chance of winning this beautiful piece of ethical silver jewellery, join Greg at Tiger Tiger on Thursday, or visit the promotion page at Daisy Green.

Penelope

This week CRED’s very own Annabel Panes launches her new collection, a beautiful range of Fair Trade 18ct white gold dress jewellery. The Penelope Collection is a sophisticated 13-piece collection of rings, earrings and necklaces that are inspired by the cocktail drinking ladies of the 1930's, especially Annabel’s Grandmother.

Penelope Ram was a lady who had a great eye for beautiful things, and saw jewellery as the basis on which to create an outfit. Annabel has taken her memories of her Grandmother and the dresses and jewellery she wore and used them to create a stunning collection of Art-deco glamour with a modern twist.

A range of beautiful precious stones in deep purples, blues and reds contrast and shine against the Fair Trade white gold supplied by our partners Oro Verde™. The iolite, rhodalite, amethyst, aqua and sapphire precious stones have been ethically sourced from Africa, India and South America, ensuring that this beautiful collection, like all CRED Jewellery, has ethical integrity along with stunning design.

Two motifs, Fleur and Forget-me-Knot, repeat throughout the collection, creating themes of rings, earrings and pendants that can be paired or contrasted, allowing you to carefully tailor your look.

The rings in the collection are particularly special. Annabel has taken the Fleur and Forget-me-Knot motifs and used them to create unique settings for the precious stones that allow plenty of light to the sides and underside. This maximises the splendour of the iolite, amethyst and zircon stones by ensuring plenty of sparkle. The result is truly stunning.

Penelope is available from today, exclusively from CRED Jewellery. Prices start at £320, with free delivery available on all orders. If you want to know more, please do contact us.

What's this?

We promised you a little suprise or two for the new year. Well, what's this?

A new page has appeared on the website. I wonder what that could be about...