The Bite Magazine - Autumn/Winter 2021 - Issue 30

bitejewellery are first designed by Arabel in Brighton and then fin- ished in Hatton Garden, London’s jewellery district, by skilled craftspeople. Every piece is hallmarked at the Goldsmiths’ Company Assay Office with the London leopard’s head. First used in 1300 as the King’s mark of authen- tication, it was introduced by Edward I to protect and preserve the standards of gold and silver wares. The leopard’s head was taken from the three lions passant on the Royal Arms. In 1478, a crown was added to the image of the ‘Leo part’ to differentiate between articles marked before and after this date but dropped in 1822 before it transformed into a leopard. Lebrusán Studio uses materials through sustainable avenues such as Fairmined and Fairtrade Gold, sus- tainable, lab-grown and salt and pepper diamonds, and fair traded coloured gemstones and pearls. Fairmined transforms mining into an active source of good, providing people with a source of gold to feel proud of. It’s an assurance label that certifies gold from empowered artisanal and small-scale mining operations with responsible practices regulated by a rigorous third-party certification and audit system. Fairmined Ecological Gold is produced under the same strict mining standards as Fairmined Gold in terms of social, organisational and economic criteria. The only difference is that regular Fairmined Gold is produced under responsible management with the reduction of toxic chemicals like mercury and cyanide, but miners produce Fairmined Ecological Gold extract and process without using any toxic chemical at all within the mining organisation. Fairtrade Gold is the world’s first independent ethical certification system for gold. Buying jewellery with the Fairtrade Gold stamp makes a tangible difference to the lives of miners, their families and communities that help to improve working conditions and provide financial security. Fairtrade Gold also allocates addi- tional funds for investment in the future of the miners’ families and communities through education, medical care or environmental projects. Ethical diamonds used by the studio are provided by carefully selected and trusted diamond suppliers to ensure they are conflict-free. Each diamond is Kim- berley Certified, a label set up in 2003 to prevent blood diamonds from entering the market. Most of the newly-mined diamonds set in Lebrusán Studio sparkling pieces are of Canadian origin, all traceable and conflict-free. If the diamond is 0.3 carat or above, it arrives accompanied by a GIA certificate or similar. Larger stones are laser-inscribed with a microscopic Canadamark, an independently verified certification that assures you that the diamond is of Canadian origin and has been mined under strict Canadian regulations. On the rare occasion the studio cannot source the client with a Canadian origin stone because of size or cut availability, they would use traceable, conflict-free and fair-traded African “My love affair with craftsmanship is born from my commitment to sustainability and maintaining cen- turies of tradition" - Arabel Lebrusán