Terms of ServiceBespoke
Every piece we sell is made to order as a bespoke piece of jewellery, made entirely by hand, from scratch, using unique, often uncut gems and stones. Because of this bespoke service, stone size, colour, shape, and detail may vary slightly from the sample images used to depict the general design on sale. For this reason, we also ask for a small amount of patience as the process of making only starts after your order is complete, and so can take a few days to finish. Please expect your item to take 5 - 10 working days to be completed BEFORE it is sent to be hallmarked and then ultimately shipped to you.
Please read the Delivery and Returns section below and the Hallmarking section for more information. Made to fit
We accommodate ANY size or fit requirement. Just pick from our size list, and give us any additional instructions in the notes to your order. If you need a special fit, or you don't know what size you are, let us know, and we'll get in touch by email/Etsy messenger to discuss. All our sizes are priced the same because even though smaller pieces may use less silver, they can be harder to make, and take slightly longer to complete.
Hallmarking
We are proud to be registered with the Goldsmiths’ Company Assay Office in London for all hallmarking and assaying. Hallmarking is a legal requirement in the U.K. for any silver item over 7.78g in weight. Items under that weight do not need to be hallmarked, but cannot be sold as silver.
All of our existing stock is Hallmarked, and new stock is sent to the assay office twice a month. All bespoke orders obviously need to be Hallmarked as well prior to being sent to you, but to keep costs down, we bundle items together into one of our regular consignments, This may mean that, even though we can create your piece in 5-10 days, because of the need to send it in the next available shipment to London, then wait 3-5 days (longer during busy periods) for the assay office to examine and mark the piece, and then wait for them to send it back to us before sending on to you, you may end up waiting a week or two longer than expected. If you need a rush order completed, we can usually arrange for the item to be expedited, or work out some arrangement that is mutually agreeable, but you must let us know at the time of the order. Delivery and ReturnsPostage
Unfortunately, due to complications arising from Brexit, we no longer offer export postage internationally to locations outside the UK as standard. If you want a special order for international delivery, please get in touch with us to see if this can be arranged.
For all mainland UK, NI, and Channel Island deliveries, we use Royal Mail Special Delivery 1pm. This service is tracked and signed-for by the recipient and insured by default for up to £500. If your shipment value exceeds £500, you will be charged an extra amount according to the weight to increase the cover to £1,000, and again to increase the cover to £2,500. Orders above £2,500 in value will have to be quoted for separately. We charge a small additional per-item fee to cover our packaging costs. Please refer to the table below to see what these fees are. Any refunds/returns postage must be insured and paid for by the purchaser. Please see our Returns section for more information. Our postage pricing is as follows:
Orders shipped to the UK including NI, and the Channel Islands
Our processing time is generally 1-2 weeks (5-10 working days, not including hallmarking) unless otherwise stated. Shipping times will vary depending on your location. UK shipping should always fall within 1-3 working days. All parcels require signature in receipt.
Customs and import taxes
We no longer ship outside of the UK. We apologise for the inconvenience.
Packaging
Our quirky packaging is also made almost entirely in-house by JR and Sharon and is made from 100% recycled/recyclable materials. Your item will be individually wrapped in recycled/recycle-able tissue paper and packaged for delivery in a recycled kraft-card box.
Each box will also contain a silver anti-tarnish card, and will be tied together with a raffia bow. Boxes are then sealed in a recycled/recyclable jiffy bag (or box for larger orders) for protection during transit. Please refer to the table in the Postage section of this page for more information on additional packaging costs. Returns
We are pleased to offer unconditional returns for any qualifying items (see below) within 14 days of delivery, or any items that are proved to be lost in transit or are refused delivery because of damage in transit.
But, please note, if you have taken receipt of an item and you find that it is damaged, then ⋙ please contact us ⋘ with photographic evidence of the damage within 14 days of receipt of goods and we will do our best to arrive at a solution. If the item is not returned in its original condition, the buyer is responsible for any loss in value.
Unannounced returns will not qualify for a refund, we will simply thank you for the gift, and sell it again to someone else. So, PLEASE CONTACT US FIRST, we're very reasonable people, I swear!
Please note: Qualifying items - for reasons of hygiene, we do not offer refunds or returns on earrings or piercings, and while we will work with you to make sure bespoke items are as close to what you expected or better, we reserve the right to not offer a refund for any bespoke item that cannot be resold as is.
All return postage and insurance is the sole responsibility of the purchaser to arrange and pay for, and will not be reimbursed. If return items are lost in transit, they are the responsibility of the buyer to insure. Lost items (other than those sent by us to the buyer) will not be replaced or reimbursed.
Care InstructionsSilver is notorious for tarnishing very easily. No matter how careful you are, eventually your sterling silver jewellery will dull, and may even discolour. We supply our silver products already packaged with an anit-tarnish strip which helps to prevent the buildup of tarnish by attracting the gasses that cause tarnish to the strip instead of the silver. But, we also sell silver cleaning cloths and products in the "Care" section of our shopfront.
However, you can be proactive about keeping your silver as clean as possible by:
AND NEVER use any chemicals or silver dips on anything that has a soft stone (pearl, bismuth, amber, inlaid stones, etc), resin, or natural setting. Chemical cleaners might clean the silver, but will likely discolour, loosen the setting, or even permanently damage the stones.
Silver is very easy to clean. The best way possible is to massage with a combination of Town Talk Polish Co. silver polish and a good silver polishing cloth. But you can also use children's mild toothpaste, warm water, and a firm toothbrush to get into the hard to reach spaces, or around softer stones like pearl.
Some of our products are set with the help of glues and epoxies. If you have one of these, you must take care to not get them wet, or expose them to chemicals that could compromise the effectiveness of the adhesive.
EthicsWe are very concerned about the health and wellbeing of our planet and the people that live on her! To that end, we live our lives as ethically as possible, and that extends to every part of our business.
We have built our business around suppliers, materials, and working practices that have as little or no environmental impact, are free of exploitation, and do not artificially inflate the cost of goods just because someone wants to get more rich. We are in the process of becoming a certified B-corp company, and are committed to the 1% for the Planet initiative. Here's a little about how we are hoping to make a difference: 100% of our jewellery is Recycled Sterling EcoSilver, and sustainably sourced ethical materials.
That is why, in our jewellery you will never see any:
Everything we supply is sourced by us personally to the mine, factory, or natural location where it came from. We know the source of every gram of material we use, and can guarantee that all efforts have been made to ensure that we are supporting sustainable, ethical producers who we know and speak to directly.
Where possible (in 90% of our materials), we certify the source with either The Rainforest Alliance, Fairtrade Association, EcoSilver, or other provenance of origin. In an effort to be fully transparent, we must note that, although the chain, findings, and solder we use are likely made from recycled sources, we can't offer certificate guarantee on these minor parts like we do for all of the other silver we use.
What is EcoSilver?
All of our jewellery (with the exception of chain and findings) is made from certified EcoSilver .925 Sterling Silver from recycled sources.
EcoSilver is refined, just like natural silver ore would be, from sources that are not pure silver. The amazing list of items that silver can be obtained from includes medical equipment, x-rays, photographic film, electronics, solder, old coins, old jewellery and silverware, and even some from jewellers like us that save all their scrap, dust, and filings.
The silver is extracted from the impure materials (which are recycled themselves where possible), and then through a process of refinement, it is brought back up to the standards of .925 Sterling Silver, or .999 Fine Silver. We then buy it from the producer as a block, sheet, tube, or wire and form it into the jewellery you see in our shop.
By recycling the silver in this way, we are minimising the need to extract further material from the earth, and avoid some of the environmental impacts associated with large scale mining. Of course, there are some environmental issues with the reniment process, but as the silver comes exclusively from a reputable source, all efforts are made to capture and either reuse or lock away all emissions and waste products so that they have the least impact possible.
We feel we must all do our part, but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy life or create beautiful things! Mitigating the waste, and reusing material is the ethical way to do that, or at least we think so!
Vegan
Personally, we are vegans, but please be aware! Some of our products are not. We choose to sell freshwater cultured pearls and for this reason alone, our pearl products cannot be called vegan. In all other circumstances, including where we use epoxy/adhesive, our products can be considered vegan.
We have chosen to use pearls in our designs not just for aesthetic reasons, but because cultured pearls can be grown in such a way that the animal is not killed or harmed, and unlike almost all other jewellery materials, the net impact can actually be a positive on the environment. Our two pearl supply partners are ethical producers from Tahiti and South China. You can read more about them in the Partners Spotlight page of this website.
We also make a select few of our designs using fast drying Cyanoacrylate and epoxy resin glues. These are not tested on animals, or made with animal byproducts, which classifies them as vegan, but they are plasticised chemicals derived from synthetic petroleum products, and as such are not perfectly environmentally friendly. We use these sparingly where absolutely necessary, and will often design alternative fittings where possible that do not require glue of any kind (such as rivets for the pearls, for example). So far, in 6 years, we have not needed to refill our supplies.
|