A Look Back At Our 2021

2021 was a year full of big changes here at Ethica Diamonds. From welcoming new team members (two and four legged ones!) to moving premises, 2021 was a year of learning, growing and continuing to spread awareness of kind not mind jewellery. A Look Back At Our 2021 | Blog | Ethica Diamonds UK During 2020, the majority of our team worked from home due to the pandemic. A couple of us managed to work together from Elaine’s house towards the end of 2020, however we needed to find a permanent office. In April of 2021 the team, who were not based day to day in the showroom, moved into a little office in the beautiful harbour town of Charlestown. For those of you who don’t know Charlestown, it is an old fishing village on the south coast of Cornwall. Its port is actually a UNESCO World Heritage site! A Look Back At Our 2021 | Blog | Ethica Diamonds UK This meant that there was now a good space for photoshoots, office work and despatching to be done without getting in the way of meetings and showroom appointments. It also meant that Freddie couldn’t wind up Henry the dog! Freddie, how could we have not mentioned him yet! Freddie, Abi’s cockapoo puppy, joined the team in March 2021 at the tender age of just 12 weeks. He is an integral part of the team with a variety of roles in his job description. Chief of quality control (he makes sure orders look pawfect before they go out), shoe destroyer (he chewed the bosses havaianas and his mums birkenstocks) and snoozer, the team would not be the same without him - although we think Henry would be happier! A Look Back At Our 2021 | Blog | Ethica Diamonds UK In May 2021 we said goodbye to Carrie, from customer service, and welcomed Olivia who took over that role assisting Claire with all customer work as well as becoming queen of bespoke. Having studied jewellery design at a degree level, Olivia was the perfect candidate for the job. Although she was catapulted into the role relatively quickly she took everything in her stride (like a true Queen) and without her we don’t know what we would do! With Olivia joining, it meant that we had another four legged boy to welcome to the team. Yoda, the 10 year old cocker spaniel. Yoda works part-time, mainly on Wednesdays alongside Freddie, with the pair keeping the girls in check and making sure everything is as it should be. A Look Back At Our 2021 | Blog | Ethica Diamonds UKIn the same month we also welcomed Sophie to the team whose focus would be on the social media side of things as well as helping Abi (our photographer and website media manager) on various creative tasks. Soph graduated from the Winchester School of Art in 2018 with a degree in Graphic Arts and now specialises in beautiful and personal illustrations, many of which you can see across our website. The creative duo worked closely with Martin, our website angel, throughout the year to create our newly launched Ethica Diamonds website that you can now see today. With a focus on easier shopping experiences, a more responsive website and one that loads a whole lot quicker than before, we are super proud of how it looks now. We also launched our Bespoke website in 2021, solely focused on (you guessed it) our bespoke work! There you can see our previous bespoke commissions and the different packages we can offer in order for you to create a piece of jewellery that you’ve dreamt about. 2021 also saw the rise in orders for lab-grown diamonds. We are proud to say that we only source our lab-grown diamonds from ethical growers, grown using renewable energy or working to offset their carbon emissions. The year also saw the rise in orders for coloured stones, mainly blue ones, which looked lovely and made the ring extra personal. Reverie or Natalia seemed to be the popular choice for many. A Look Back At Our 2021 | Blog | Ethica Diamonds UKIf you follow us on Instagram, you may have also noticed a change in our packaging. We want to be as earth friendly as possible which meant saying goodbye to our plastic ring boxes and hello to beautiful FSC-Certified cardboard ring boxes featuring natural wool felt to protect your purchase. We also introduced our ‘forever boxes’. Wooden jewellery boxes with our logo debossed into it. It makes the perfect keepsake and also keeps your jewellery extra safe when it’s not being worn. Another exciting piece of news that happened is that our photographer/website manager, Abi, got engaged! Her (now) fiancé, Jake, came to us back in March wanting to propose and luckily we knew exactly what she wanted. She had always loved the Aesa but wanted to add a personal touch and had always said that should Jake ever propose she would like the Aesa but with the setting that reminds her of her Taurus starsign. Of course Freddie was involved in the proposal and on the 4th September, surrounded by the most beautiful blue skies and sea, Jake popped the question high up on a cliff overlooking their favourite place, Bedruthan Steps. Abi is holding out her hand downwards to show off her Ethica Diamonds Aesa engagement ring. She has her other hand over her mouth in happiness and surprise. We also won Platinum Trusted Service Award 2021 for consistently delivering excellent service to our customers. An award we are very proud of! None of us know what 2022 has in store but here’s to another year of helping customers find their dream jewellery whilst also helping the planet, one lab-grown stone at a time. Ethica x The Ethica Diamonds team