On a personal and professional level, I am a jewelry designer and an artisan when it comes to creating my own jewelry pieces. My passion for gems started when I was 18, when my mother gifted me with my first diamond and white gold ring. I remember being captivated by the lights reflected on the diamonds as I play with the ring under the rays of the sun. The wonder and amazement had never left, and after three decades later, my appreciation for natural gems had only grown exponentially to the level of a love affair.
Fashion has taken me to digging and panning for gems in New South Wales, Australia, to taking a jewelry making class in Bali, Indonesia, to the National Diamond Center, in Jerusalem, Israel, and making tireless trips to jewelry and curio shops in California, and Hawaii, U.S.A., Athens, Greece, Efes, Turkey, Taiwan, Thailand, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paolo, Brazil, Lima and Cusco, Peru, and other countries that I have visited.
Jewelry is part of the fashion industry, but it has issues that are different from fashion designers. That’s why a fashion law advocate must choose and get to know very well his/her sector. Unlike fashion designers, I do not worry about my creations being plagiarized because the material I work with, real gems, have a built-in assurance that they cannot be copied for each gem is unique. For example, the inclusions in a natural emerald or ruby can actually be x-rayed and the inclusions can provide the identity of the gem for insurance purposes.
I also do not worry about my creations being “relevant” because my natural gems have been formed from the earth for millions, some billions of years, and they will remain for billions more. It is my duty to design and showcase them properly, so their esthetic and metaphysical values and beauty can be appreciated by generations of people who are fortunate to be their stewards.
Having said that, one of the issues that I actually deal with, have to do with the ethical sourcing of the gems. I do my homework and I ask a lot of questions from dealers of gems, as to their own practices of sourcing.
In working with organic gems, say the tooth of a shark, or a wild boar, I purchase them from museums who can give me the assurance that these gems came from animals who died from natural and environmental causes and were not hunted down precisely because of yields from their bodies.
From the very beginning, I have made the conscious decision not to use ivory that comes from elephants. I use material from the ivory pine nut, or “tagua”, which comes from Ecuador, which is ethically harvested, so they are not rendered extinct.
In working with precious gems and rare earth minerals, I deal with and buy from trusted sources. As much as possible, it is good to ask for certificates, though these would raise the prices. This is something that I discuss with those who commission me to create special pieces for them.
One must always be on guard for “diamond laundering”, where conflict diamonds, or conflict gems mined in countries where these gems are used to fund internecine wars, are “cleaned up” through a process of multiple transfers to evade detection. I have also made the decision from the very start that I would not deal with gems of this nature, because they are part of the system that contributes to so much human savagery, pain and destruction.
It is also the case that in my life-long education with gems, I have discovered that some of them, while quite beautiful and even haunting, are not beneficial to the human health, for they contain harmful elements like lead and mercury. Take the example of cinnabar. It is a beautiful, rare, often red colored mineral that can crystallize into gemmy clusters. The problem is, one of its main components is mercury. Much of the cinnabar “jewelry” made today is actually wood painted with cinnabar lacquer to achieve the beautiful red color. But when I was in Taiwan, three years ago, I encountered cinnabar jewelry which were advertised to contain 97% cinnabar! These should not even be breathed in, much less worn by humans. I am not aware of any Philippine study, much less, any draft of a bill that specifically prohibits or regulates the selling of gems or minerals like this.
In the Philippines, we do not have an assay law, where jewelry makers and houses who set gems in metals and sell them to the public, are legally required to provide agreed symbols for the metal and the metal’s purity and fineness which is determined by the amount of the metal that was included in the setting. Customers are entitled to know outright the percentage of silver, gold, platinum or palladium in the settings of their jewelry. The karat weight of gems must also be indicated. For the longest time, much of the jewelry pieces that have circulated in our country, from estate jewelry and even currently, have no indication of the carat weight of the gemstones. Apart from protecting the consumers, an assay system would facilitate the trade in Philippine made jewelry pieces in different parts of the world.
It is also the case that most sellers of jewelry pieces in malls, and pawnshops do not even know the names of the gems they are selling, because they are all about the metal setting. If you grill them as to the identity and source of the gems you are interested in, they will provide you with the stock answer, “Sir/Mam, that’s semi-precious”.
And worse, some of them would even misrepresent the gems they are selling. Misrepresentation can come in different forms. These sales people can offer synthetics/plastic/glass simulants as “natural” gems. Or they can offer a lower priced gem for a higher priced gem. For example, one might be shopping for a blue sapphire, but the sales person can offer you a blue iolite or a blue zircon. These are real gems but they are not as highly valued as a blue sapphire. And if you don’t ask, they can offer you a laboratory created gem, as a natural gem, say a ruby. A laboratory created ruby would possess all the properties of a natural ruby, and many times, it is difficult to tell them apart. But a laboratory created ruby is made in a lab vat in a matter of months, while a natural ruby was made for millions of years by the processes and conditions only a Supreme Being or God could create, so therefore, it is so much more valuable.
All of these issues I raised, with the probable exception of the last, are not particularly dealt with in specific Philippine laws, and are not known by legislators, so there is nothing “to implement”. These “issues” can only be known and appreciated by people who have done the actual work themselves. That is why it is important for fashion lawyers to actually familiarize themselves in the creation of things of beauty and fashion, so they can better serve their clients.
The path of Beauty, Fashion, Gems and Law, is definitely NOT peachy nor frivolous, it is definitely NOT for the prejudiced, and certainly NOT for the weak minded.
In closing, Ms. Santos’ question “Would you say that the government’s lack of specific laws prohibit you from reaching your full potential as a fashion designer?” made me smile.
As a creative, as a jewelry designer, and as an artist, the farthest thing from my mind and vision is the lack of Philippine laws. When I create, I do so because my artistic Life depends on it. I crave for Beauty, Truth and Honesty in my creations. Sometimes, there might be disputes from outside sources concerning the results. But the point is, I do not create from the outside, I do not depend on critics or the government telling me what I can and cannot do. I dictate the terms of my Creation. It is only through that can I remain Free, Liberated and Committed, at the same time, to continue pursuing and realizing my Artistic Vision.
The lawyer in me comes through those ethical choices (which for me have legal repercussions, in the relevant countries where the gems are sourced), that I had agreed to uphold and make, when I started this great and joyous journey that I am still on, in discovering the messages of God through the wonderful gems I have been privileged to procure, steward, shepherd and share.
Thank you for reading this far. Namaste.
Philippine Law Bytes: TheCyberLawyer Issues by Dr. Attorney Noel Guivani Ramiscal 