BENNI CAROL'S ECO-WEDDING SUPPLIERS NETWORK

Eco-wedding & Engagement rings | Jacqueline & Edward

Benni Carol's eco-wedding suppliers network

February 1, 2019

ETHICAL AND SUSTAINABLE WEDDING AND ENGAGEMENT RINGS

JACQUELINE & EDWARD

Jacqueline & Edward is a family business based in Yorkshire. They design beautiful engagement and wedding rings, using recycled precious metals and diamonds, lab grown diamonds and natural sustainably panned river gold from around the UK. Everything they create is purely sustainable, ethical and handmade.

→ Jacqueline & Edward's Ethos and Work

→ Jacqueline & Edward's Story

→ Jacqueline & Edward's Vision

→ Jacqueline & Edward's Video of their Story

Photo Credits: Sansom Photography

Jacqueline & Edward's Ethos and Work

Their environmental standpoint is core to the business and as well as using ethical materials Jacqueline & Edward plant a native tree in the Caledonian Forest with every order to help restore natural biodiversity whilst sequestering carbon from the atmosphere.

All the pieces they create are 100% handmade from beginning to end.

Photo credits: Mark at Jacqueline & Edward

Even the most complex of their engagement rings are toiled over for countless hours from melting the initial alloy, drawing the wire used for the prongs and rolling the sheet to create the galleries, to shaping the ring, setting the stones and the final polish. Nothing is created using computer aided design (CAD), then cast as a single finished piece. Each step of the process, from the liquid alloy rolling around in the crucible to the final ring, is done with meticulous care and pride from their home workshop in Yorkshire using age-old traditions and skills.

Photo credits: Mark at Jacqueline & Edward

Jacqueline & Edward enhance all their rings with natural river gold from different regions of the UK and beyond to add provenance to their rings, often connecting with a couple’s past. If their couples are looking for a unique story to wear on their finger, they can even join them in the wild of Scotland panning for gold which Jacqueline & Edward can add into their wedding rings.

Photo Credits: Samson Photography

Jacqueline & Edward's Story

Jacqueline & Edward’s story began over 30 years ago when Mark (the co-founder) was driving over the Kildonan Bridge at “Baile an Or” with his father Edward. They were in the middle of nowhere, literally. A bearded man was hunched over the river with a cowboy hat on. “What on earth was he doing?” they thought. One small conversation later about the days gone by of old timers finding gold in the hills and a demonstration of the art of gold panning and their clapped-out old campervan was thrown in park for two weeks. Mark and his father had found gold... and gold had found them. Little did they know, both of their lives were changed forever.

From that day, gold panning became central to Mark's life whilst he grew up and brings back all his favorite memories. Spending time with family and friends, paddling around in rivers, falling in love with geology, fires in the wild, camping in the hills and finding some of that illusive metal.

Photo Credits 1: Liz Sinclair Photography; 2: Sansom Photography

After studying geology and then environmental geochemistry whilst continuing to nurture his passion for art, Mark and his wife built Jacqueline & Edward, initially in their spare time whilst Mark was working in the environmental sector. It was an outlet for all the things which they love… precious metals, art, creation, geology, people, teaching, learning, business and adventure. Sometime past, it took over both their lives and the day jobs were gone. Now they live and breathe Jacqueline & Edward almost every waking hour.

They have so many plans for it, from expanding their offering to take Clients looking for gold in the wilderness by including a miner’s cottage accommodation option to creating a pendant range specifically intended to focus on generating money to assist with cleaning up plastic from the oceans.

Jacqueline & Edward's Vision

Their overall vision is to bring the beauty and provenance of natural river gold, gifted from their family collection, into the world of ethical jewellery. Recycled metals and gemstones are central to Jacqueline & Edward’s sustainable outlook, as is their eco packaging.

They want to leave a legacy of trees, positive actions and good memories behind them, show people how to look for gold in an ecofriendly way and create beautiful high quality jewellery by hand within their own workshop.