Arabel Lebrusan, Ethical Jewellery

Award winning Hot 100 Jeweller Arabel Lebrusan was one of the first jewellery designers/retailers to be a Fairtrade gold and silver licensee and was previously creative director of Leblas Jewellery, the first ethical jewellery boutique in Sloane Street, London. A trained gemmologist who holds a prestigious Masters in Jewellery Design from the acclaimed Central St. Martins School of Art and Design, and a Bachelors degree in Fine Art from the University of Madrid, she has through her jewellery line revitalised the European heritage that is fast disappearing and bring unique traditional techniques to a new generation of customers by using Ethical and Fairtrade metals and stones to create beautiful stunning jewellery. Her iconic pieces are worn by the likes of Princess Letizia of Spain and Sienna and Savannah Miller.

Sustainability, traceability, origin of materials, or cradle-to-cradle design are words that haven’t been used very much in the jewellery sector in recent history. Neither the genocide in Sierra Leona back in 2000 or the chemical spillage on the Somes River in Romania on the same year have ignited much debate about the ethics of how we source our precious metals.

References to this ethical dilemma of conflict diamonds and the issues in the gold mining process have been around for years, in the international press and online, but still it is not a driving force in the decisions of consumers. Here, at TEDxBedford Arabel makes the compelling argument for ethical jewellery.