10 eco-friendly jewelry brands from Quebec

Hello, guys! This Friday our weekly “Meet a jeweler” edition will be a bit different. It has been a long time I wanted to make some kind of a review of Quebec jewelry brands working with sustainable, eco-friendly principles. Here we are! I am glad to present you 10 local jewelers who create beautiful things with respect to our Big Green Planet. Some of them you already know from my posts, some will be completely new! Discover and support!

1.LOFT.bijoux by Olga Leclair

They suggest to start with yourself when you want to change the world. That's what I did. At my atelier-boutique at 3910 Saint-Denis (Montreal) you can get custom jewelry made of recycled gold and ethical gemstones. My stone supplier sources many stones directly from the mines, which means you can get sapphires, emeralds and many other gemstones that are completely traceable.

At LOFT.bijoux we also recycle and transform old clients' jewelry into new pieces.

2.CinderellaGarbage

Cinderella Garbage creates jewelry and fashion accessories that are made out of compressed and vitrified garbage.

Cinderella Garbage signed an agreement with Pyrogenesis Canada Inc., a Montreal based company who specializes in developing innovating solutions to valorize and utilize waste. Pyrogenesis’s innovating technology uses plasma torches to dissociate virtually all materials, including waste, into the simplest elemental form to produce clean energy with no residual materials.

Trash is a girl’s best friend!

Once the molecular structure of waste is reduced to its simplest form, what is left resembles a black, slightly translucent and shiny material, which Cinderella Garbage uses to sculpt its “black diamonds”. This material is the result of everything that was inorganic in the waste. Cinderella Garbage “diamonds” come from everywhere. Everything that surrounds us is either organic or inorganic: cardboard, plastic, metal, wood, ceramic, water, earth… everything from a gift wrapping to a grain of sand!

3.Emily Lewis from Studio METHOD(E)

A lot of the materials used by Emily are recycled. The copper wire is got from old electric wires, always used, that she has recuperated. The copper sheet is roofing cut offs, pieces that are too small to use on copper roofs but are actually giant for jewellery. She recuperates every scrap of metal that is not used.

She also works very rarely with precious or semi precious gems, aside from pearls, and when she does she prefers to use lab grown ones.

4.TDN Creations

TDN Creations, founded by Trang Dai Nguyen, uses recycled metals whenever possible. Their metal supplier earned recycled content certification in an SCS audit (SCS is a global leader in verification of environmental and sustainability claims with internationally recognized standards, and their certification ensures that all of our supplier’s manufactured gold and silver product is certified 100% recycled precious metal content).Some of the brand’s designs are made of clean scrap metal that they recycle in-house.

They also use ethically sourced and conflict-free gemstones, give their customers the option to use lab-grown gems like Charles & Colvard moissanites and Chatham gemstones. In the studio of TDN Creations the non-toxic and eco-friendly products are ued whenever possible, i.e., citric acid in their pickling pot. They also have an oxygen generator so they don’t have to throw out disposable oxygen bottles.

5.CartoucheMTL

CartoucheMTL, my recent guest on the blog, is an eco-responsible lover in her everyday life and does her very best to make the best choices regarding the activity of he brand. For the materials, she is buying them as locally as possible and uses more of natural materials and fiber. When she creates, she makes sure to take only what she will really need not to waste anything.

Less can be more

6.Le Cubicule

Eco-responsible jewelry brand, proving that Etsy shop can be a success. More than 28 thousands of sales on Etsy also show to all non-believers that sustainable jewelry is in demand!

7. Louve Montreal

All jewelry by Louve is made locally and in small quantities. Each piece is handcrafted, one by one, with meticulous attention to detail and respect for the raw material. For both wood and leather, materials are mostly recycled. Virginie, the founder of the brand, gets most of her leather from local handbags designers (mainly working with already recovered leather!). All of her wood pieces are exclusively made from tree species of Quebec’s forest; mostly maple, birch, beech, cherry and walnut. She likes to preserve an appearance, at times, unrefined, at the finishing process, to highlight the uniqueness of each jewel, as the persons who will wear it around their neck.

8.Julie Bégin

Contemporary jewelry by Julie is infused not only with her passion for art but also with respect for eco-responsible craft. She is a member and supporter of Ehical Metalsmiths. Whenever possible, she chooses responsibly mined and verified, ethically sourced materials in making jewelry and strongly supports sustainable development.

9.Lidia R joaillière

Lidia is concious about the sustainability of her job. She tries to avoid wasting water so she has a a bowl to dip her pieces in instead of running the tap water! In 2011, freshly graduated, Lidia won her first contest. The theme was “Environment”, and she made her Sink ring!

As well, Lidia gathers all the little silver details to melt them and transform into ingots to further create a wire. She is still fascinated by this process!

10.Cyanure

In this hyperactive era that demands everything be done yesterday, Julie, the founder of Cyanure, refuses that lesser quality goods mass produced by exploited humans be our sole consuming choices. So, under Cyanure’s banner, she has adopted a creative approach supportive of a healthy, sound, realistic and, as much as possible, environmentally friendly lifestyle. If you check it on her online boutique, some stones and silver are recycled, taken from the vintage objects. Contrary to passing fashions, her approach ensues from a strong will to fight the dominant hectic lifestyle of Western society.