Karian Jewellery

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Diamonds in the Rough

Cambrian News ~ February 22nd 2008

Next Monday will mark the beginning of Fairtrade Fortnight in Wales. To coincide with the event, reporter DION JONES spoke to a Porthmadog couple who are leading by example in the field of fair trade jewellery... Karen and Ian Pendragon with some products made from fair trade larimar, which they collect from mines in the Dominican Republic.

Porthmadog residents Karen and Ian Pendragon have been trading under the banner of Pendragon Glass in the town for the past five years. Ian & Karen

They are one of the very few stockists of ethically-sourced larimar, a pre-cious gem which can be found only in the Dominican Republic. In fact, the product is so rare that it is gathered from a single mine - and that only has another 10 years of reserves left. Karen and Ian are also fair trade champions in every aspect of their operation. “A lot of countries adopt the unethical approach to trading with larimar,” Karen explains. “They will haggle with the miners and greatly beat down the price, which the miners have to accept because they have no other source of income. “Then, the larimar would be trans-ported to Thailand where it would be manufactured into jewellery by sweat shop workers.”

The couple’s link with the Dominican Republic began back in 2004 when they went to the country on holiday. After visiting the larimar mines and some of the local artisans, they decided to stock the product them-selves, ensuring that local min-ers would get a fair price for their wares and that the stone is manufactured in a satisfactory environment. “We know the artisans working in the region,” said Ian. “We’ve visited many different workshops out there and they are all safe and clean places to work. “The artisans even have time sheets there which state how long they have worked, which is amazing for a third world country.”

Unable to do business with the mine in the traditional manner, the couple now make the arduous journey to the Dominican Republic at least once a year to retrieve the jewellery and ensure that the workers are well looked after.

The Dominican people have endured a long and turbulent struggle with unscrupulous corporations over their larimar reserves. The gem was first mined in 1974 by a private company before the countries’ co-operative of miners was formed in the late 1980s. The co-operative, along with the assistance of the president of the Artisans’ Association, challenged the Gov-ernment about this monopolisation of mining and won. Now the mine is worked by the co-operative and the association, which enables the miners to trade their wares in a free, open market.

Karen and Ian visit the mines on a regular basis, buying directly from the miners and the Artisan Association members. Through their involvement, they are able to ensure that that the stones used in the jewellery have been mined and produced in an ethical manner, providing employment and security to the Dominican miners, artisans and their dependants. Unfortunately, the same is not true for other locations in the world, as Karen explains: “We went to India to have a look at a jewellery workshop out there and it was awful. “There were wires hanging down from the roof and the jewellers were forced to work with minimal light. “We thought ‘no way are buying from here’.”

Earlier this month Karen and Ian were at the spring trade fair at the NEC in Birmingham with the wholesale side of their business, Karian. This annual event is the big-gest trade fair in Europe and Karian was the only Welsh company with the ethical brand - which means the product can be traced to the source without harming anybody. “I think there is a big movement happening in the jewellery industry at the moment in terms of fair trade products,” said Ian. “Especially since people have become more aware of the unethical way that diamonds are mined from locations such as Sierra Leone. “During the spring fair, we found that a lot of people questioned where the stones came from and how they were retrieved, which is an excellent attitude to have.”

On May 8 2004, the National Assem-bly for Wales pledged to make Wales the world’s first ‘Fair Trade Country’. The Wales Fair Trade Forum is encouraging everyone across Wales to get involved and take this ‘important step towards making poverty history’. When asked whether she thought Wales would encounter any problems trying to achieve Fair Trade status, Karen replied: “The biggest problem now is that there so many cheap copy products from China flooding the market, many of which are manufactured unethically. “Not many buyers from these companies can say that they know exactly where they come from and how they are made. “We can see our conviction every time we visit the Dominican Republic.”

“We know the difference we are making,” added Ian. “We hope that other retailers will give more thought to where they are buying from and hope to that consumers will ask the questions.”