My Story
My Story: The Workshop – Where Art Meets Craftsmanship
Welcome to my world of bespoke jewellery, where traditional artistry meets contemporary design. Each piece I make carries a story, blending heritage techniques with modern aesthetics to create timeless treasures.
Explore my Commissions and Remodelling services, where your ideas take shape in gold and gemstones. Whether you wish to breathe new life into an heirloom piece or commission a one-of-a-kind creation, my workshop offers endless possibilities.
Browse my Portfolio to discover the craftsmanship behind my work. And if you’re curious about the jeweller behind these designs, let me share my journey with you.
A Journey Through Design and Craftsmanship
With an international arts education and a lifelong passion for ethical jewellery, I have dedicated years to perfecting my craftsmanship. As a Brussels-based designer-goldsmith, I seamlessly blend traditional techniques with contemporary design to create jewellery that is both beautiful and meaningful.
I carefully consider the provenance and available sourcing information of the precious metals and gemstones I work with. I either remodel customers’ old gold or carefully select responsibly mined materials to ensure complete traceability and sustainability. Responsible Consumption and Production
Over the years, my commitment to these values has been recognised in different ways. I hold Erkend Ambacht recognition for my professional craftsmanship, Fairmined certification as a licensed Fairmined business working with gold from certified responsible artisanal and small-scale mining organisations, and the Ecodynamic Organisation label, an official Brussels recognition of my atelier’s environmental management practices and actions to reduce its environmental impact.
Together, these recognitions reflect different aspects of my approach to craftsmanship, responsible sourcing and environmental management. They also resonate with the wider values of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
How I Choose My Materials
As a goldsmith, I believe in giving back to the communities that make ethical jewellery possible. That’s why I am a member of The Community for ethical Jewelers and Fair Luxury UK, organisations that advocate for responsible sourcing in the industry, furthering the aims of decent work and economic growth and responsible consumption and production.
For me, knowing as much as possible about the origins of the materials I choose. Being able to share that information with my clients, is an important part of how I approach jewellery making. Each Ocean Diamond comes with a certificate documenting its batch number and country of recovery and cutting.
I also choose precious metals such as Fairmined gold because the Fairmined Standard sets defined requirements covering working conditions, fair remuneration, community development and environmental practices, with compliance independently audited.
My approach doesn’t stop at the certification. I want to understand the people and communities behind the materials I work with, which is why I have travelled to mining communities and sought to learn first-hand about the realities of artisanal and small-scale mining.
This way of working reflects values that resonate with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, particularly No Poverty, Decent Work and Economic Growth, and Responsible Consumption and Production.
My Fairmined Journey
The jewellery industry has long faced environmental and ethical challenges. That’s why I am committed to responsible sourcing—choosing metals that support fair wages, community development, and environmental sustainability.
Transparency Matters
I want you to know where my materials come from and why ethical sourcing is so important. I work directly with small-scale artisanal miners, ensuring that every gram of gold and silver, and gemstones I use supports responsible practices.
This transparency and collaboration also support Gender Equality and Reduced Inequalities, by empowering marginalised mining communities.
Fairmined Jewellery: A Commitment to Quality
Saskia Shutt Designs is a Fairmined licensed brand, meaning my jewellery is created from Fairmined Eco gold and Fairmined silver. Metals that are traceable, responsibly sourced, and environmentally sustainable.
These practices ensuring fairness, transparency, and care for our planet.
My Visit to Mining Communities
- Fair pay for miners
Safer working conditions
Environmental protection
Every Fairmined certified mine and Fairmined certified jeweller undergoes strict third-party audits, ensuring complete transparency from mine to market.
Fairmined Gold: A Personal Journey to Peru and Colombia
My commitment to ethical jewellery goes beyond sourcing—it’s a personal journey. I’ve travelled to both Peru and Colombia to visit Fairmined-certified mines, meeting the miners who work tirelessly to extract gold responsibly.
In 2022, I visited three mining communities in Peru: CECOMIP, Oro Puno and Cruz Pata.
Oro Puno is the mine where my Fairmined gold comes from. It was particularly meaningful for me to visit the place where the gold I use in my workshop is mined and to meet the people who work there.
During my visits, I was able to experience first-hand how the miners work within artisanal and small-scale mining and follow the Fairmined requirements. Their efforts contribute to objectives around Decent Work and Economic Growth, responsible production and consumption, and Life on Land, with attention to the environment and the development of mining communities.
Meeting the miners deepened my understanding of the origins of the materials I work with. Behind the gold I use are people, a community and a place. That connection to the origin of my materials is something I carry with me into every piece of jewellery I create.
In 2023, I travelled to Colombia, where I met the Fairmined miners from Chede and Iquira. Sitting around the table with them, listening to their stories and exchanging experiences about our involvement in responsible mining was an experience that has stayed with me.
Their work is not only about gold extraction. The Fairmined requirements also address working conditions, the development of mining communities and the way the environment is managed. By meeting the miners themselves, I gained a deeper understanding of what these requirements mean and the impact they have in practice.
These encounters gave me a deeper insight into the people and communities behind the gold I work with. They made it even clearer to me that the origin of a material is not simply a matter of certification, but also a story of people, their work and their environment.
Meeting these communities in person reinforced my belief that jewellery can carry more than beauty: it can also carry the story of the people, places and choices behind its materials. For me, that means creating with attention to provenance, fairness and transparency.
A Step Towards a Cleaner Future
Better Without Mercury
I have made small financial contributions to this work in the past Better Without Mercury project, which works with artisanal and small-scale miners to reduce and ultimately eliminate the use of mercury in gold processing.
The project has worked with the Gualconda mine in Colombia, supporting miners as they move away from the use of mercury and explore alternative processing methods. I chose to contribute financially to this work because reducing mercury use can help improve conditions for mining communities and reduce the environmental impacts associated with mercury in gold processing.
My involvement with the project has also strengthened my understanding of the practical challenges faced by artisanal and small-scale miners as they work to change their mining practices.
The Gemstones I Use
Gemstones are an important part of my work, and I select them for their individual character, colour, qualities and suitability for a particular design. The information available about gemstones varies from one stone and supplier to another. Where specific information is available, I include it in the story of the piece.
I also remodel customers’ old gold, transforming existing jewellery into new pieces while retaining the original material.
Moyo Gemstones
Moyo Gems is an initiative working with women artisanal gemstone miners in Tanzania and Kenya, providing access to international markets, training and support to strengthen their opportunities within the gemstone trade. Its work is closely connected to issues of gender equality and decent work.
I choose gemstones from Moyo Gems because I value the opportunity to support a supply chain in which the women miners are visible participants rather than anonymous links in the chain. I share their stories and the provenance of the gemstones with my customers during consultations.
Diamonds Recovered from the Ocean
Ocean Diamonds are recovered by skilled divers from the seabed off the coast of Namibia and South Africa. The diamonds are retrieved seasonally by local fishermen using diving techniques developed for working in their marine environment.
What particularly appeals to me about Ocean Diamonds is the connection between the stone, its place of origin and the people who recover it. Rather than simply buying a diamond, I want to understand something about the journey it has taken before reaching my workshop.
Each Ocean Diamond comes with a certificate documenting its batch number, the country where the diamond was recovered and the country where it was cut. This gives me documented provenance for the diamonds I purchase and allows me to share information about their journey with my clients.
For me, this is an important part of conscious jewellery: knowing as much as possible about the origins of the materials I choose and being able to share that story with my clients.
I am a corporate supporter of Diamonds for Peace, an organisation working with artisanal and small-scale diamond mining communities in Liberia to improve working conditions, livelihoods and transparency within the diamond supply chain.
In June 2024, I travelled to Liberia with Diamonds for Peace and visited the three diamond-mining communities where they are working: Gbarma, Weasua and Camp Alpha. I met the miners and their families, visited their mining areas and stayed in the homes of members of the communities. Being there in person gave me a much deeper understanding of the realities of artisanal diamond mining and the people behind the stones.
I support DFP because I believe that understanding where diamonds come from, and knowing more about the people and communities behind them, is an important part of creating jewellery with integrity.
At present, I cannot purchase diamonds directly through a Diamonds for Peace traceable supply chain. DFP is working towards developing a more transparent supply chain that can trace diamonds from the mining communities through to the consumer.
I believe it is important to be transparent about this distinction: my support for Diamonds for Peace does not mean that the diamonds I purchase are DFP diamonds. Rather, I support the work being done to create greater transparency and better opportunities for artisanal diamond mining communities.
Practices in My Atelier
I continually review and refine the way I work, looking for practical ways to reduce waste and make considered choices about the materials and products I use in my workshop.
- Citric acid instead of nitric acid: I use citric acid instead of nitric acid for specific processes in my workshop. Citric acid is biodegradable, and this choice allows me to avoid using nitric acid for these processes.
- Water-based polishing pastes: I use Luxi water-based polishing pastes for polishing my jewellery. I chose these products because their water-based formulation is better suited to the workshop practices I have developed.
- Metal recycling: I collect my precious-metal offcuts and polishing waste for refining and recovery.
My packaging choices:
- Cotton business cards: My business cards come from MOO and are made from cotton linters, the short fibres around the cotton seed.
- Website hosting: I use Kualo for my website hosting. Kualo states that its hosting is powered by renewable energy.
- Jewellery packaging: I use the Boston Eco range of jewellery boxes from Westpack, made with FSC-certified cardboard.
I continue to explore better alternatives for foam inserts and other materials, always striving to improve.
Creating Jewellery with Integrity
Jewellery is more than adornment. It tells a story. By choosing Saskia Shutt Designs, you are choosing individual craftsmanship and a considered approach to the materials behind your jewellery. I pay attention to the provenance of the materials I choose, the sourcing information available for them, and the practices within my atelier.
These choices reflect my belief that beauty and integrity can belong together, and are inspired by the wider values expressed in the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Let’s create something meaningful together. Book an appointment to discuss your ideas and create a piece of jewellery with a story of its own.
