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Here’s the thing I love. Budget friendly jewelry can also be eco-friendly. But they aren’t always, so how do you balance these two very important things and still get jewelry you love? You marry a jeweler, that’s how.

But in all seriousness, this can be done with the right knowledge. This is where your local jeweler can be a huge help. My job here is to give you a base of information to take to that jeweler and plenty of questions to ask to make sure you’re getting the responsible product you want. But, first, I have enough to say about buying used jewelry for its own post, so we’ll start there.

Buy Used
This is an eco-friendly blog. What did you expect? Of course the first suggestion is to buy used jewelry. There are many places to do this. Garage sales, antique stores, vintage jewelry shops, thrift shops, etc. Some people may be weirded out by the idea, and I get that. I was not expecting at all to get a used engagement ring. I expected it to be handmade by Will, but he insists that he does not have the technical skill to do what he would want. We just went into the vintage jewelry store for fun, plus he needed to talk to the owners. I didn’t see anything I was crazy about, but as another couple started to look at their engagement-style rings, we casually looked at a box of bands. There was one that was kinda pretty, so I tried it on for fun. It was really pretty, but I wasn’t sure. It was white gold with all diamonds (so much whiter than I had envisioned!) and it was maybe a little big. I took it off, but something kept drawing me back to it. I eventually was standing there, just staring at it on my hand and one of the workers told us that it was the one – she could see it in my eyes. The price was right (and they charged him even less), so Will came back a few weeks later, bought it, replaced the two center stones and we were engaged before Christmas.

So what was the point of that story? The point was that you may think you don’t like used jewelry or vintage jewelry, or whatever. But it never hurts to look, because among all the costume jewelry there are some real gems (no pun intended). The great thing is that you never know what you’ll find and you always know it will be unique. I have many engaged friends, and a lot of their rings look similar, but not one of them has a ring that looks like mine. I never knew that was my style, but it is perfectly me. Magic can happen when you broaden your horizons beyond the big name jewelers. And, even better, this vintage jewelry will have a much nicer price tag than any comparative retail piece would. So there is your best of both worlds for you!

So why don’t you consider giving a piece of jewelry a new home? It is the only type of jewelry you can buy that will have no impact on the environment (especially if you bike to the shop), and you are sure to impress you friends.

 

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