Day 4 am

Following on from the 'Rising Gems' event, for Coutts London Jewellery Week an exhibition which delves straight to source of ethical jewellery has been put together for the public to get closer to topics of sustainability and the environment, Green Gold.

Held at the illustrious Art Workers Guild, Green Gold is a Candescent Project exhibition which takes you on a journey with aid from jewellery, photography, video and art about responsible small-scale gold mining in Colombia.

The program in Colombia is called Oro Verde and it encourages miners to extract gold with out the use of chemicals, this is turn allows them to live of the land for longer, it stops deforestation and the miners get a better value for they're gold.

The project was started by Tanya Boyd to educate and pioneer Fairtrade Gold. Tanya has worked very closely with the Oro Verde programme and you can really feel and see the passion at the exhibition Tanya pours into making sure this project is recognised and gets as much exposure as possible.

There's a wonderful blog on The Candescent Project website in which you can follow Tanya's story 'In Search of Green Gold'. The story starts in the Gold Museum of Bogota and ends with a visit to the Oro Verde artisan miners in the eco-region of Choco, Colombia.

I think the exhibition really brings the topic of ethical mining and materials to life, as part of the exhibition Tanya approached jeweller Stacey Whale to create a piece which would represent The Candescent Project. Stacey Whale has a very organic style to her work and with her infatuation for the representation of positive and negative space in jewellery, Tanya's choice was perfect.

The crafted piece is absolutely beautiful and you can really see Stacey's unique style within the piece. The gold cuff has been pieced and set with equally ethical stones provided by Colombia Gem House in the US. As you can see in the picture there are two pieces, once Stacey had pieced the cuff, the gold was then used to created the ring, which is no doubt equally as stunning.

The exhibition is on at the Art Workers Guild till Sunday, but The Candescent Project is now running strong and hopefully by the end of the year Fairtrade Gold will be as recognised as Fairtrade Coffee.

For more information check out The Candescent Project website for more info and Stacey Whale's website for more of her designs.

Daniel Lambert - Sky Arts' Jewellery Correspondent