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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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We Love Our Community. 27 October 2009

A thank you to our Toronto community for coming out to support our opening. What a night!

 Special Thanks to Lee @ You Say Yeah! for all the photos: http://tr.im/ftjcopics

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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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What do you get when you cross a Goldsmith with a Brewer? A Stein Beer. 9 September 2009

In anticipation of the Fair Trade Jewellery Co.’s big launch I took a day away from designing jewellery to design a beer recipe for our opening with Simon Rollason of Great Lakes Brewery. Inspired by the shared heritage of our trades, the artisans process and the fact we’re big kids who had the run of a brewery; we settled on creating a ‘Stein beer’.

In anticipation of the Fair Trade Jewellery Co.’s big launch I took a day away from designing jewellery to design a beer recipe for our opening with Simon Rollason of Great Lakes Brewery. Inspired by the shared heritage of our trades, the artisans process and the fact we’re big kids who had the run of a brewery; we settled on creating a ‘Stein beer’.

Simon putting together Great Lakes Brewery 'Pilot System'

Photo: Simon setting up the Great Lakes Brewery ‘Pilot System’

So what is a Stein beer?

*"..In the early days of brewing, brewers were much more concerned with method than style. Heating the water and boiling the wort were probably the greatest obstacle to making a decent beer. How in the heck were you supposed to brew without the modern conveniences of steam jackets or direct heat? For brewers in the Middle Ages, hot rocks were the most logical means of conducting heat. When dropped in a wooden vat filled with wort, the heated rocks had a cauldron effect, causing the wort to boil vigorously over a period of several minutes. This resulting brew became known as "stein beer." From the name – "stein" is German for "stone" – we can gather that Germans developed this traditional brewing method. Stein beer was most common in the Alpine regions of Europe, where stones were easily quarried and transported back to the brewery. With the Industrial Revolution came easier means of heating wort, and by the start of the 20th century, the method was obsolete."

*Content from BYO 2001:

To summarize we’re gonna throw really (really, really) hot rocks into beer.  Heating the rocks (pink granite to be exact) is often done in an open pit fire, some brewers have built fires around kegs with the tops cut off in which the stones are placed. But, we had a better idea. Because we use extremely high temperatures in the process of jewellery casting it only made sense to use a kiln rather than an open fire to super heat the rock to a specific temperature. 900 degrees Celsius (1652 degrees Fahrenheit) to be exact.

Photo: FTJCo’s Kiln & the Pink Granite sourced from a local beach.

By heating to such a temperature: (a) it would be really cool (b) unknown volatiles would be released by the wort that normally wouldn’t be extracted by simply boiling (c) something would catch fire (and did) (d) we hoped because of the heat some of the sugars and proteins would deposit on the rock as it ‘cooled’ in the brew, creating natural and subtle burnt caramel flavours.

The ‘Stein Paper Scissors’ Recipe: (Influenced by a Sierra Nevada Pale ale)

5kg of Canadian Pink Granite (from the beach) at 900 degrees C at 60 min

Malt: 2 Row, Crystal, Wheat

Plato Readings: Before sparge: 19 / after sparge: 12.6  / after boil: 14.4 / after rocks: 15.6

Hops: Ammarillo: 200gr at Boil,  Cascade: 200gr at 55min

Pink Granite heated in conventional goldsmith’s convection casting kiln over 5 hours allowing the rocks to soak in heat gradually until reaching and maintaining 900 degrees C.

Rocks were removed from the kiln and literally thrown in the wort using wood we soaked all morning in boiling water.

Also added a couple of super secret ingredients <here>

The rocks were added after the Cascade hops had 55min of  ’rolling boil’, producing a violent ’super boil’ instantly.

We had expected some caramelization on the rocks however the extreme temperature created enough steam to protect the surface of the rock.

Fermentation: California Ale Yeast

We decided to add the rocks to the fermentation process hoping some sugars were extracted into the rock.

C02 Bubbles a good sign shortly after finishing.

We’re extremely exited about the process and there is some potential here to create a really incredible and unique process. If you’d like to try our ‘Stein Paper Scissors’ Great Lakes will have limited quantity  (about 20 pints) available for sampling at their Project X #3 tasting on Sept. 10th at 6:30pm. The last cask will be saved for our opening party on the 25th of September if you’d like to attend please RSVP here: http://reno.ftjco.com

We’ll be updating this post with some process and recipe tweeks, tasting notes, photos of the final product. If your interested in the process, have some questions please feel free to leave a comment below we’ll try to fill in any missing bits.

*Update*

Thanks to Jack from Great Lakes Brewery for delivering me a bottle of ‘Stein Paper Scissors’ to sample. Here are some photos and tasting notes.

 

Unfiltered with a deep Amber colour, sadly the head quickly dissipated leaving only a bubbly ring around the glass.  (Though I probably wasn’t using the correct glass) A 

Smell was floral, rose, caramel, citrus a complicated but balanced smell almost like a perfume. A+

Taste. %^!*^#ing Wow. Explosion of so many tastes that almost feel like they evaporate off your tongue, it’s the oddest sensation. It leaves behind a very tasty but extremely bitter hop flavour that seems to coat the inside of your mouth. A burnt, peppery, woody undertone is complimented by some citrus flavours produced by the Cascade hops and that ‘rose’ flavour/scent keeps popping up. A++++++++

The high alcohol volume (approx 6.5%) is unnoticeable when drinking, and dare I compare it with Southern Tiers ‘UnEarthly’ I.P.A for complexity? I’m interested in Simon’s review as the IBUs are so very high I would no longer classify this as simply a Pale Ale but an American style I.P.A. 

I’m obviously biased but this one of the most interesting beers I’ve ever tasted. We are awesome :D

 

 

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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).

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Trashman 4 War Child Comes to an end. 13 July 2009

It was an incredible week, our ‘Trash Man’ program for War Child Canada achieved some incredible awareness and raised almost *$2000 in 7 (grueling days). We want to thank everyone who blogged, tweeted, called, emailed, donated their support for the initiative

It was an incredible week, our ‘Trash Man’ program for War Child Canada achieved some incredible awareness and raised almost *$2000 in 7 (grueling days). We want to thank everyone who blogged, tweeted, called, emailed, donated their support for the initiative. We are overwhelmed by the response and would especially like to thank Simon Rollason of Great Lakes Brewery for the use of his personal & company vehicles, Zip Car for crediting us for the use of theirs. CBC, Toronto Star, CityTV & CTS  for such positive media coverage, and War Child Canada for allowing us to undertake such an ambitious (& audacious) fundraiser.

To ‘Team Trashman’  Asaka Yamashita, Michael Penney, Toby Proctor, Jaime Woo who joined me on this adventure: you are incredible people, who have my love and appreciation.

"I’d like to thank Ryan and his #Trashman crew for the most extraordinary effort over the last few weeks. You are all War Child heroes, albeit slightly smelly ones. Now go get some sleep!"
 - James Topham, Director of Communications, War Child Canada

The Reason: Sadly the Ontario Environmental Protection Act forbids us from continuing to collect our neighbours trash during the Toronto garbage strike without a $500 certificate of registration with the Ministry. We have decided that $500 was unjustified any money raised from our work should go directly to War Child not a ‘pay to play’ certificate.

We wish both the City & Local 416 well in their negotiations, we hope our light hearted approach took a little pressure off the process by providing a positive alternative during such uncertain and frustrating times.

Please remember http://warchild.ca/trashman link is still open we encourage you to consider War Child and make a donation, every dollar counts.

With Love, Ryan Taylor

*Still counting the beans

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Workin' The Night Shift For War Child Canada 25 June 2009

“Gonna be a long night, it’s gonna be all right, on the night shift” – Lionel Richie

@asakayamashita

@michaelpenney    @ryantaylor

With thanks to Sam, James, Alyson & all the War Child Canada staff for their encouragement and support of this project.

OK so it’s a quote totally out of context, but now that we’ve got the Commodores in your head we’re hoping to make things ‘all right’ by doing something positive during  the Toronto ‘Garbage Strike.’ From 11:59 PM this Friday (the 27th) until 2 PM on Saturday (the 28th)   3am Saturday the 28th until the end of the strike the FTJCo is mobile on the night shift providing garbage removal for FREE after $10 a bag or 6 for $50 donation is made directly to War Child Canada. By providing this FREE service we limit illegal dumping, keep Toronto clean, get to share some smiles, connect with our community through an awesome cause, and by no means break any provincial Environmental Law :) This initiative supports both the City of Toronto and the union Local 416 in their ongoing negotiations and we trust that they will see this initiative as a positive program that supports the law and respects the workers .

Email from the Ministry of the Environment regarding legality of this Fund Raiser:

"ENV1283MC-2009-3124

Mr. Ryan Taylor
E-mail: ryan@ftjco.com

Dear Mr. Taylor:

The Ministry of the Environment (MOE) has received your July 6, 2009
e-mail regarding your company’s fund-raising activities.

The MOE’s regulatory authority under the Environmental Protection Act
over waste management companies does not extend to activities such as
charity fund raising.

The "fund raiser" described in your message would likely fall under
the mandate of the Ontario Ministry of Revenue.  You can visit the web
link at http://www.rev.gov.on.ca/english/publications/client/data.html?sid=4.

You can also call the MOE’s Toronto District Office (416-326-6700) to
discuss your company’s waste management activities, if you need
further clarification about your role and responsibilities under the
EPA.

We hope you find this helpful."

Updated: We’ve decided to extend the program to get the message out and allow communities time to coordinate, thanks for the tremendous support!

 

Updated Pick-up Schedule on our form below:

 

Monday 4am – 7am, Wednesday 4am – 7am, Friday 4am – 7am

Thanks for the support! Trashman is now finished Special Thanks to: Jaime Woo Michael Penney Asaka Yamashita Toby Proctor

 

In The Media

What the press are saying: Toronto Star, Globe & Mail, CBC News @6 [Video] , CityTV News @6 & Breakfast Television

What the Twitterverse is saying:  http://bit.ly/iPTmo

 

Sponsors & Partners

 

Thanks to:  Simon Rollason & Great Lakes Brewery for the use of their vehicles as mini garbage trucks!

 

The CabbageTown BIA is now supporting the initiative! [More]

"the BIA has hired Matt “Sweeps” McAllister to clean our streets twice a week for the duration of the strike. Sweeps started on Friday and he’s been attacking the big problem areas first. He’ll soon be on top of the worst and then he’ll be able to do smaller litter on the walks and near the curb.

When Sweeps has filled his bags, they’ll be taken to the dump by Ryan Taylor from Fair Trade Jewellers, the new store that’s currently under construction at 523 Parliament. Ryan is doing this as a contribution to the international charity, War Child. All of the fees that he’s collecting will be used to help child soldiers.." 


Posters

Would you like to show support War Child’s ‘Trashman’ in your neighborhood? Please click on an image to download and print these posters (size 8.5/11 in Adobe PDF format):

 
  

 *Special thanks to Jason Murphy for the poster graphic and concept

Signing up is a simple process but first some tips on reducing your waste & getting the most from your pick-up (from us or the City)

a. Remove all metal, plastic, and paper including shopping bags and styrofoam. Washing food/beverage containers allows you to store maximum waste without odor or sanitary issues.

b. From the City of Toronto website: "When bringing materials for disposal, please combine Green Bin materials with other garbage, place in securely tied, double plastic bags and bring to any of the drop-off locations". Which means we’ll pick up diapers! …Ugh Yay!  Please try to store out of sunlight & remove all foods and liquids & consider composting in your yard / organizing a community collection.

This suspension of service is a great opportunity for families to discover and implement new ideas for reducing, recycling and waste management, to be applied year round. Here are a couple fantastic ‘green’ resources: http://www.treehugger.com | http://www.davidsuzuki.org | have a suggestion? Please feel free to add your resource in comments & we’ll update.

 

I’m Sold! Sign me up!

Pick-up area: We are limiting our 1st effort to within Toronto ‘proper’ large donations will obviously expand the coverage area ;)

Pick-up times are based on qty and amount donated please be patient with us and complete the form below with details on where you have placed your bags.  If you’re on twitter consider sending  a tweet to @ryantaylor with #trashman #warchild in the message and help spread the word.

Donations are made by credit card directly to War Child Canada. They set us up a special page here: http://www.warchild.ca/trashman once complete please update the form below with pick-up details. – Please donate based on qty of bags i.e. $10 a bag or 6 for $50. Additional donations are always welcome and very much appreciated.

If you can’t pay by credit card we reluctantly accept cash & cheque please make note on the form below.

But wait there’s more!

Toronto’s Twitterati can enjoy a special treat, for just $20 a bag premium you can enjoy watching my friend, the impeccably dressed Duarte Da Silva a.k.a @modernmod squeamishly carry your trash away while you enjoy your favorite beverage (may we suggest a nice chianti) from the comfort of your porch, lawn or stoop. Oh! Did we mention we were filming this?

 

Registration Closed.

We’re All Done. Thanks everyone for their support! #trashman 4 #warchild is getting some sleep Zzzz.

Despite the project ending, please consider supporting War Child by donating here http://www.warchild.ca/trashman


City of Toronto LEGAL drop off stations:


View 2009 Garbage Drop-off Locations in a larger map

 


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FTJCo's Ryan Taylor Speaks on Creating Social Change 10 June 2009

[Ryan looks forward to collaborations that will help optimize the opportunities to create community, expand fundraising, and usher in a new era of volunteerism.]

Fair Trade Jewellery Company CEO Ryan Taylor participated in Net Change Week in Toronto, where he spoke on creating social change and worked with nonprofits to harness new online technologies. Ryan drew on his experiences working on holiday fundraiser hohoTO for the Toronto Daily Bread Food Bank and SpinTO fundraiser that benefited the Toronto People With AIDS Foundation with the FTJCo as the top sponsor.

Ryan was part of an experienced panel sharing "Real Social Media Success Stories" alongside Meghan Warby of public relations firm Hill & Knowlton and James Topham of charity War Child Canada at the My Charity Connects conference, held by CharityHelps.org, one of the largest online philanthropic organizations in Canada. Ryan spoke on fostering community and his involvement with nonprofits and charities, including the unprecedented success of hohoTO. Promoted mostly through social media, Ryan acted not only as one of the organizers but also as an active, vocal promoter generating excitement within the technology community, which helped to attract a sell-out crowd of 600+. In addition, Ryan worked with nonprofits as part of Social Mastermind // Social Media for Social Change, a full day workshop designed to team up knowledgeable members of the technology community like Ryan with nonprofits to help use social media to create change.

Ryan and the FTJCo would like to thank MaRS for organizing Net Change Week, CharityHelps.org for inviting him to speak,  Meghan Warby and James Topham for being incredible co-presenters, and Sarah Prevette of RedWire for the Social Mastermind invite. Ryan is excited to have connected with organizations such as the Toronto Arts Council, Joelle Woodruff and Unicef, the Stephen Lewis Foundation among others and looks forward to collaborations that will help optimize the opportunities available through social media to create community, expand fundraising, and usher in a new era of volunteerism.

Update: James Topham of War Child Canada has written a follow-up post <here> about shifting to a new  collaboration model for non-profits rather than the current competitive one. Planning begins June 22 on what we hope will become an extremely useful resource.