Many thanks to the blog readers for putting me onto the work of jewelry designer Todd Reed.

Todd’s designs use ethically sourced diamonds and recycled gold, but his use of raw diamonds sets these rings apart.

Ring using cut and polished diamonds and raw diamond cubes. Courtesy of Todd Reed.

Before diamonds are cut and polished, they arrive in a rough shapes, including cubes and octohedrons. These rough diamonds capture the idea of nature and earth as the most perfect form, and challenge the idea of perfection.

It started as a way to question society about the idea of perceived value. In particular how value and perceived value relate to ideas of beauty or perfection that have become norms of society.

There are certain ad campaigns, such as, “She’ll like you at a half carat, but she’ll love you at a carat.”, that prompted me to make this line of jewelry. This would be a line of jewelry that really did use the most perfect diamond in the world, the actual raw diamond. Uncut. Unpolished. Natural, perfect geometry.

As the popularity of the “bling” look fades, the natural look is rising in popularity. And a raw diamond ring creates great interest: “My wife’s rings stop people in their tracks.” (from BluePlanetWedding.com’s blog comments - thanks Joe!).

Check out Todd’s pages: www.toddreed.com and at Altered Space Gallery.

Since the dawn of man, gold has been a very important commodity in financial, spiritual and cultural transactions. Gold, however, is difficult to extract from the earth, and modern mining techniques use deadly toxins like mercury, arsenic and cyanide to separate the gold from the surrounding rock. The amazing part? Gold mining is completely unnecessary, especially for jewelry.

(Platinum and diamond ring from BrilliantEarth.com; BrilliantEarth.com’s renewed gold statement)

2000 tonnes of gold mined annually goes into jewelery, according to greenKarat.com. Yet there is enough gold that’s already been mined to serve the jewelry industry for the next 50 years, much of that gold is unused jewelry sitting in bank vaults.

Buying old gold and repurposing it is a very responsible move. Jewelers can melt down the gold and craft it into a unique custom designs, often for less than store-bought mass produced pieces.

Check out estate auctions, eBay and even pawn shops and the family collection for unused pieces of jewelry that can be reused. It reduces our reliance on slave labor, environmental toxins and strip mining.

Wooden wedding bands are an eco-friendly alternative for the groom, but the maintenance and care can turn off many people. Pure wood rings are not as permanent as gold and other metals, and the symbolism of permanence is an important part of being married. There are options; consider a wood-inlaid titanium ring.

(Rob and Lean Creative and Unique Gifts)

There are always issues around the production of any metal - mining is a destructive and chemical-intensive process. Turned wood rings are an alternative, or you could recycle an older piece of gold jewelry and have a jeweler craft something new.

For wood, species like teak and mahogany are endangered species; look for woods that are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council or other governing bodies. The type of wood is not as important as where it came from and how it was produced.

(Any wood ring, inlaid or not, cannot be submersed in water for any amount of time - learn how to take care of your ring)

I wonder if I could convince my wife that I should trade in my current gold wedding ring…

The diamond engagement ring is the first and most prominent symbol of an upcoming marriage. The bride-to-be (and her friends) cannot take her eyes off the ring, especially for the first few weeks after the engagement. But before you buy a diamond, there is one question you absolutely must ask your jeweller:

Where did your diamond come from?

Diamonds have a long, dark history of being mined in slavery conditions to finance war, rebel insurgencies and the activities of warlords. Diamonds mined in West Africa (Sierra Leone, Liberia, etc.) in the 1990s financed brutal civil wars; see the movie Blood Diamond for a Hollywoodized version of these events.

Since 2002, conflict-free rough diamonds have been certified under the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme. This process tracks and certifies rough diamonds as being conflict-free; the money does not go to support wars, etc.

For high-quality, ethically mined and conflict-free diamonds, Canadian diamonds are a good choice. Canada is a major diamond producer, and has led the industry in setting ethical production and distribution standards.

Just ask your jeweller for conflict-free diamonds, Canadian diamonds or diamonds certified by the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme.