So, if you know us at all, you know that we try our best to be as conscientious as possible when it comes to using up the finite supply of items the earth has so generously provided us. Ash really took it to a whole new level when he showed me how he re-uses tape in the workshop. It's really true. He was equally surprised when he saw how shallow I have my baths. I measured out a typical shower-worth of water and compulsively can't fill the bath up past that line.
Anywho, we had sort of a crisis of conscience when we first started selling our work overseas. Ash worked so tirelessly to find an ethical supply chain for his materials and to then ship those across the planet seemed wrong. Especially as it meant we had to package and protect and label and tape it and, and, and... We even looked into non-airmail shipping, like ship shipping on an actual ship. Doesn't really exist anymore for tiny parcels, apparently. So, we justified it by telling ourselves, that those planes were probably going to fly to America anyway and our rings still probably have a much smaller footprint than mass-produced jewelry and donations to Green Peace and blah, blah, blah.
But! We also promised that we would not, under any circumstance send extra bits of paper that, although they might be cute and branded and contain sweet thank you love letters, would ultimately just be thrown away. Almost all of our packaging is re-used or made from recycled materials (the post office forces you to use some plastic courier bags for certain types of shipping and not sure about the cotton fluff filling of our little boxes). Our gold wedding bands come in handmade wooden ring boxes made from sustainably harvested wood make by a local company. Ash has been known to send jewelry to galleries in toilet paper roll tubes, but I made him stop doing that.
We are just about to start the process of designing our own little package so that we can tell a bit about our story and how to care for the jewelry without the need for any extra bits of paper. We've found an amazing, well, packaging artist here in NZ to work with, and is it turns out he has excellent taste because Ash made his wedding band a few years back. His name is Mat Bogust and he runs www.thinkpack.co.nz. His web site is really worth a look. Check out these awesome loose tea packages he designed: 
So, I'll chronicle the process! I think it will be neat! And hopefully, we won't have any more need for that dubious cotton fluff.