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Fair Trade Jewellery Co. @ The Green Living Show April 23-25 16 April 2010

Join the Fair Trade Jewellery Co. @ The Green Living Show in Booth #232 Amongst the Eco Fashionistas.

This is our first show, and to be honest we're a little nervous. But the opportunity to showcase what we believe to be a pretty incredible company along side some of Canada's leading green organizations is pretty exciting.

So what exactly are we offering at the event?

We'll be available to discuss our design service(s), Fair Mined metals, FTJCo, and the communities we support. Just like our atelier we prefer personal interactions over speed dating and sales. If you'd would like to email info@ftjco.com we can also save a time to speak with you privately.
 
We will also introduce our *Clear™ brand. A collection of bridal & engagement rings we have sourced in recycled Gold, Platinum or Palladium. These rings are a responsible, affordable alternative to traditional metals for those customers not interested in custom work. 
 
*As part of our reinvestment mandate a percentage of all sales from our Clear™ branded rings will also benefit the Oro Verde™ program.
 
Need tickets give us a tweet @ftjco or email info@ftjco.com  Looking forward to meeting some new faces at the event!

XO
Ryan
 

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2009 A Year in Review for The Fair Trade Jewellery Co. 19 December 2009

2009 Sped past us here at the Fair Trade Jewellery Co., we moved from a concept in a small studio into an atelier built from the frame of a dreary office like space lacking only cubicles. Despite our success, we also faced our fair share of challenges…

2009 Sped past us here at the Fair Trade Jewellery Co., we moved from a concept in a small studio into an atelier built from the frame of a dreary office like space lacking only cubicles. Designed to promote both creativity in the designers that work there and provide our customers a comfortable environment to learn about ethical jewellery and its production, our space far surpassed any expectations. Feedback from the local community has been extremely positive, and we hope we can encourage more businesses to join us in Cabbagetown to make a positive impact on the area.

We successfully followed through on our commitment to make social responsibility, both local and abroad, a founding principle of our business. In 2009 we continued our commitment to HoHoTo a fund raiser for the Daily Bread Food bank as both an organizer and in kind sponsor, we’ve also developed an exciting relationship designing creative fundraising programs with War Child Canada, and we supported / sponsored our friends at SpinTO a fundraiser for the Friends for Life Bike Rally in support of the Toronto People with AIDS Foundation. Not bad considering we ‘officially’ launched in October. We look forward to carrying this success forward diversifying our support each year to best reflect the communities we conduct business in.
 
Like any new business, we also faced our fair share of challenges in 2009. The renovations completed by ourselves, friends and family produced an awesome result but the speed of completion and inexperience managing such a large project severely delayed our opening. It was an expensive delay that restricted our ability to design and produce the desired number of original products for our branded lines. Our renovation project sent waves through everything we endeavored to do; we managed what time we had to production design and on custom commissions for those customers referred to us. This focus on the ‘business at hand’ restricted our ability to properly serve any new clients who, while patient with us, rightly expected more attention and better communication. As a result purchases were made elsewhere. We understand, and we greatly appreciate the candid feedback from those people as they helped us identify the areas we need to to improve the most. 
 
We believe in 100% satisfaction for clients, the products we’re producing are intensely personal and often represent a significant investment. In addition to being 100% ethical in our sourcing we must also provide best in class customer service which will be our #1 focus in 2010. 
 
So how will we better serve you?
 
Hours. Our hours have been sporadic despite being advertised on our site and store windows. This was one of the unforeseen problems of the incredible demand we’ve experienced. This will be resolved in 2010 simply with staff.. Our focus will be on structuring consultations better, improving our availability during popular times.
 
Choice. We were under the misconception we could design and produce jewellery from an original sketch for each customer. While romantic in its sentiment this is creatively exhausting, time consuming and if we are to be completely honest not at all profitable. In 2010 we will continue to offer dedicated custom services for clients seeking creative solutions, but in addition to this we will introduce open show cases stocked with a large variety of  samples for customers to physically interact with. These samples will include both a collection of curated classic styles and our own expanding original collection, each ring easily modified to fit each customers specific needs. We believe this solution will help us better educate customers on options, by using the styles to teach associated terms. Should a customer not wish to shop with us they should at least leave with a greater sense of confidence and a literacy of jewellery.
 
Education. Most of the positive feedback received over past few months has been about the time dedicated to educate clients. We intend on expanding on this with a series of articles to be published on our blog as well as some creative video to build on our the success of our documentary.
 
Price. In addition to the work we do with Oro Verde metals from Colombia, we will introduce a second (ethical) product line designed to meet competitive price points. This collection will include pre-made rings ready for purchase without any wait.
 
We will maintain our hours until January by appointment only so we may focus on one on one service, current clients and our 2010 mandate. Of course there are a few more surprises up our sleeves in 2010 but we’ll save them till we’re done.
 
Wishing everyone a Happy Holidays and a wonderful New Year!
 
Love;
Ryan & the FTJCo
 
 

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Cabbagetown Nuit Blanche '09 3 October 2009

We’re happy to have been a part of the successful fundraising efforts for this years Cabbagetown Nuit Blanche, and we’re really exited to be running Attaque des Araignées! & Arachnattack! Two community arts projects in the ‘Zone’, both supporting causes.

 

We’re happy to have been a part of the successful fundraising efforts for this years Cabbagetown Nuit Blanche, and we’re really exited to be running two community arts projects in the ‘Zone’, both supporting causes.

Our first project is an interactive photo booth showcasing the skills of Toronto freelance photographer Rannie Turingan. Attaque des Araignées! (Attack of the Spiders) "Un film en noir et blanc de Rannie Turringan pour War Child". We’re holding a pay what you can casting call in support of War Child Canada as part of Cabbagetown’s Nuit Blanche Celebration. Bring props, and add your scene! Located at Théâtre Fair Trade Jewellery Co. 523 Rue Parliament Toronto 7:00pm until Je ne sais pas. ‘Actors’ will be photographed in black and white with/without thought or speech bubbles to add dialogue to the scene. Photos will be placed in story board format in our front windows where people will have the opportunity to change the order and help create a ’scary’ story (aroooooo) for the evening. The final ordering of photos will be compiled and uploaded on the web where they can be downloaded & shared.

 

Or second project is Arachnattack! an experiment for a local collaboration project between businesses and residents. This year, our neighbor Rama Caritey, Dean from ‘The Lamp Cage‘, and our favorite local Simon Rollason (who helped with equipment and beverages from Great Lakes Brewery) will work all night create giant spider lanterns inspired by Vancouver’s "Illuminaries Festival" & Elora’s "Twilight Zoo" We’re gonna get your hands dirty and we hope you’ll join us as we rally behind community ‘creation’. Once completed, the lanterns will be installed on the roofs & sides of retail buildings along Parliament St. the following week and stay up until Hallow’s Eve! Proceeds from the decorations will go directly to a local community group.

Participants will be able to help build/finish the spiders we have been working on by:

- Making faces for the spiders

- Build out the legs using empty beer cans, canvas, cheese cloth, tissue paper & glue

- Installing lights

- Enjoying the process

We hope you can join us tonight and while you’re here check out the other incredibly cool projects in our zone @ http://www.cabbagetownnuitblanche.ca

Special thanks for the poster go to Al Morton who continues to amaze. We love Al.

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Fair Trade Jewellery Co. & War Child Profiled on 100 Huntley St. [Video] 11 August 2009

The Business of ‘Good’

It’s often considered taboo to talk about ‘God’ in relation to a business, there is always potential for misinterpretation of the message, traditional bias, confusion or even scepticism. The safe road is to probably avoid the topic all together. However, as founder of a jewelry company focussed on ethics I felt it was important to communicate where I come from, and how some of my core values translate into the ‘Business of Good’ through the organisation and into the supply chain. As a ‘Christian’ I know there can be a certain amount of fear and shame associated with identifying oneself publicly as such, but it’s important to stand up every once and a while to challenge extremism and connect with a greater community with a few universal values: trust, respect, truth and love. As an entity on to itself the Fair Trade Jewellery Co. naturally shares these ideals; it is a company for all, in support of both our craft and our community without any prejudice. I’d like thank to Bridget Antwi from 100 Huntley Street for this excellent report on us, and our friends at War Child Canada and a little bit about God and I.

And for those interested here’s a little plug for my friends at St. James Cathedral as they’re raising a whopping $3M for the Cathedral Center. The center will continue to provide (incredible) drop-in and community outreach programmes, a facilities upgrade is definitely needed to maintain/support these service(s).