April Hospitality: Diamonds!

“A kiss on the hand may be quite continental…”

Our April Hospitality speaker, Arabel Lebrusan, the creative director and designer of Leblas Jewellery near Sloane Square, discussed the ethical approach she takes when sourcing and making jewellery and explained why Canadian diamonds truly are a girl’s best friend.

We learned how jewellers assess the value of diamonds using the 4 Cs: carat, colour, cut, and clarity. A diamond with more carats, a clear or lighter color, a cut reflecting the most light, and no inclusions or blemishes are more valuable.

Arabel uses a 5th C however: “certificate”, to judge the value of a diamond. She uses only certified-Canadian diamonds for her jewellery because of the ethical problems that can surround many diamonds from Africa, especially Sierra Leone. By using Canadian diamonds, Arabel is able to trace the mine a diamond comes from and therefore takes a stand against conflict diamonds or those mined by children.

She spoke particularly about the Ekati Diamond Mine, 300 kilometres northeast of Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories and how the mine works with local Aboriginal groups to ensure the mine meets agreed environmental standards.

Nina Tukaj, Patty Bell, Arabel Lebrusan and Teresa Howe

Taking inspiration from her home country of Spain, Arabel designs many of her pieces, especially those incorporating filigree, to be handcrafted by specially chosen artisans in Spain. Pictures of Arabel's designs can be found on the Leblas website (click here).

We were all impressed by the Arabel’s beautiful jewellery and inspired by her efforts to improve the ethical standards of the jewellery industry. We'd like to thank her, and Nina Tukaj (a Vancouverite who is working with Arabel at Leblas) for a wonderful talk that left us all sparkling like Canadian diamonds!

Submitted by Laurel Steuernagel

Unfortunately this is the last blog posting that we'll have from Laurel, who has worked with us on an internship basis for the last few months. We took a few moments at the Hospitality to thank her - presenting her with a few fun momentos of London. Laurel was a real asset to the CWC and we'll miss her enthusiasm, great write-ups of events and assistance on so many office tasks and events. Thanks again to Laurel! We hope she'll come and visit on her next trip to London.