While I am very careful to source my precious metals only from SCS® certified suppliers (SCS® stands for Supply Chain Sustainability; they are the global leader in the field of sustainability standards and third-party certification). Most of my precious metals suppliers are also members of the Responsible Jewellery Council. However, I want to point out that ‘recycling gold' is not what is commonly understood by the term.
True recycling avoids things ending up in landfills. Gold, of course, wouldn’t.
Instead, gold is simply melted, refined and repurposed.
Although SCS® certified refineries must maintain auditable records of their suppliers, there are loopholes globally which make it very easy for gold from unregulated and/or illegal sources to enter their supply chain.
This makes even 'certified recycled' gold untraceable.
I seem to recall I started my whole blog thing that way: talking about how I see beauty everywhere… Here are a couple of more examples:
The other day, I opened a can of Maple Syrup (yes, it does come in cans, too). This one had been a gift from a student that came to visit from Quebec to stay with us for a while … a while ago. I am not accustomed to using things from cans, so I forgot I even had the can of syrup, until I ran totally dry of ‘liquid gold’ during a brunch last Sunday, where I served waffles. … I needed syrup, and now! So I remembered the can.
When I opened it, beautiful, luscious syrup was inside. Plus, around the rim, I found this amazing collection of sugar crystals which had formed inside.
these sugar crystals naturally formed in a can of maple syrip
I was quite startled by this. Firstly, I saw its beauty: the clear row of crystals, grown into each other, glimmering in the morning sun coming in through the window. I wondered: how do crystals form (and why?why?why?), how does this relate to diamonds in their opaque cube form, versus their clear octahedron form …. what IS it that makes them grow differently???
Different diamond shapes: and to think they all start as charcoal!a rough diamond cube in the necklace of my "Precious" series
And at the same time the whole thing made me giggle, with a sad tinge. What I saw reminded me of a set of false teeth … my mother, when she was in the earlier stages of Alzheimer’s, would sometimes take out her teeth and hold them out for me to see, as if to ask “What do I do with these??”.
There is beauty (and broken heart, and humour!) everywhere. Especially in how nature works, I must say.
Nature, she was at work again in all her fury and beauty the other night in Halifax, when a huge lightening storm shook and amazed Nova Scotia’s inhabitants (and kept travellers captive on the tarmac for six hours).
Following is a photo I took of a scene that made me see the bizarre beauty of it all…
rainbow and lightening over the Oland brewery
If you are connected to Facebook , there is an amazing video on the CBC Facebook page, which shows the beauty of the lightening strikes, somewhat slowed down; check it out ici.
Beauty is everywhere!!
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