I think that honesty and transparency forms the base of every personal relationship, but also - and maybe even more so - when shopping online. In today's (social) media structures it's very easy to sugarcoat, abstract, add and remove the things that should or should not be seen to conjure the idea of how we like to be perceived. To work against this and to allow for you to have an open and genuine shopping experience, I would like to share with you the sources, from which I obtain my precious metals:
Schiefer & Co: Schiefer is a traditional and trusted company from Hamburg specialised in 'Precious Metals Refining'. They purchase and sell precious metals, as well as purify impure metals with the greatest care and ambition. By my frequent local runs to pick up silver wire, sheets and solder, I can experience the family-like dealings with customers, as well as amongst employees, and come close to my seller's working processes. In terms of sustainability and environmental controls, Schiefer is striving to support the fair metal mining and trade of precious metals, especially gold, and has 2016, as the first refinery in Germany, officially started trading with fair trade certified precious metals to meet an increasing demand in sustainably and justly sourced metals.
Heimerle & Meule: Heimerle & Meule is one of the oldest refineries for precious metals in Europe, known online as Cooksongold. They offer a range of eco silver wires and sheets and are very transparent in showing and explaining their refining process. If you would like to know more about how your silver is sourced and processed before it lands on my work bench, click here.
I am anxious to process materials with a transparent (and decent!) backtracing to how they where sourced and traded. I am consistently working on increasing my usage of eco silver to offer you an eco-friendly alternative to sterling silver.
Thanks for your time and interest in the working processes and materials behind the finished objects. Lots of love, enjoy the browse! X
Julika