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The NZ jewellery brand recycling used materials

Saying no to fast fashion, New Zealand jewellery brand Luna & Rose is a circular business which uses recycled materials from Thailand and Indonesia, and manufactures in Bali.

In 2020 the brand launched its Golden Giveback initiative, where people could send in their old unwanted jewellery to be melted down and used in new products. After phenomenal success, the company has decided to bring back the project which is open until March 31 2021.

Last year the Golden Giveback saw Kiwis send in 948gm of sterling silver, 39gm of solid gold and over 17,000gm of brass, to be melted down and remade. 948gm of sterling silver can make around 130 necklaces or 215 rings.

The brand was founded by Rose Shelton in 2014 after her time learning and working in the fashion industry. Witnessing first hand the amount of waste that goes into creating fashion collections, Shelton decided to launch her own ethical and sustainable Jewellery brand, with a focus on supporting people and the craft.

“As a designer, I saw the amount of waste that went into seasonal collections that we worked so hard to design and produce. I wanted to create a label that would be a part of the new economy that uses things, rather than uses them up,” says Shelton.

Luna & Rose founder Rosie Shelton

From Shelton’s designs, all products are then crafted by her artisan silversmiths in Bali and goldsmiths in New Zealand. Collections are produced in small batches to reduce the waste of materials and resources, and all solid gold jewellery is made to order.

“If any product is left over at the end of a collection, my model allows us to simply melt pieces down and re-use the silver for the next collection.”

Recycled silver is used in all of the brand’s collections, sourced from Thailand and Indonesia. Its refinery in Thailand takes pre-used silver, laptops, computers and iPhones, extracts the silver and purifies it. It also takes in any old or faulty stock and melts it down to use in the collections. Similarly, all solid gold products are made to order in New Zealand, using recycled solid gold.

For customers wanting to participate in the Golden Giveback project, they can simply gather their jewellery and fill out the special returns form on the Luna & Rose website before sending the pieces to the company. Items donated must be made of gold, silver or brass and can be from any brand. After checking the weight and quantity sent, Luna & Rose will email through a Golden Giveback voucher to be used on the online store.

The brand’s most recent collections are the Zodiac range and the Phenomenal Women collection.



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