SUSTAINABILITY

The Silver Loom is a design-led jewellery studio in West Cork.

Building on the rich heritage of Irish silver through innovative, considered and sustainable practices.

We are committed to creating your jewellery in the most responsible way we can. Considering the impact our decisions make, throughout our design process, and down to the packaging, we strive to choose consciously in every aspect of our business.

All our jewellery is made using lost wax casting in recycled sterling silver. Using recycled silver produces carbon emissions two thirds lower than new mined silver. 

Silver is a beautiful material that retains its quality throughout its lifetime. We choose to work with enduring materials that can bring the wearer a lifetime of joy and can always be effectively recycled. All waste metals at the studio are collected and melted down to make more usable silver.

We combine physical prototyping along with digital modelling throughout our design period in order to enrich the designs as well as eliminate some of the waste that occurs during the prototyping stage. Throughout the varying elements of the design industry the prototyping processes, a necessary and fun part of making anything, often produces waste. We use digital modelling as a way to develop and improve designs while reducing some of the waste created during this process.

Your jewellery arrives in a linen pouch, inside a beautiful box. The box is made out of rigid cardboard covered in linen. The pouch is handmade using zero waste fabric patterns. This package was carefully put together to keep your piece safe. However if you no longer need it, everything is recyclable and compostable. 

These efforts are not confined to our studio practice, this is our outlook in our lives. We want to be conscious creators, and try as much as we can to leave no negative trace. This is of course a near impossible task. To offset the things we cannot avoid we tackle the things we can. In the last year we have switched our studio to solar energy and planted 50 trees in West Cork. 

Sustainability starts with empathy for the world around us and each person taking responsibility. There is a lot more we can be doing and we will strive as a studio to keep learning and improving as we grow. 

Grá Mór,

Izabelle & Andrew