SUSTAINABILITY

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  • At Baka, we go beyond designing sustainable jewellery, to creating pieces which offer you conscious choices. Each of our pieces is made from clean material, and provides livelihoods and preserves traditions because it is handcrafted. We look at social, economic and cultural sustainability alongside the ecological factor because we believe that everything is interconnected and that everything counts. We strive to walk the talk, and continue to raise standards for ourselves and for the industry, while never compromising on our values.


    Sustainability is a big word which is increasingly losing its meaning because it is used so casually. This is even more so when it is paired with fashion.

We were asked recently what we mean by sustainable jewellery.

We had a LOT to say, but here are our top five points:

1. We ensure our pieces are made from clean material.

This means we use materials which are up-cycled, repurposed, recyclable and renewable. Our material is ethically-sourced, it is as local as possible, and we source it at a fair rate from small vendors and not from big corp-orates. This ensures that the money we pay out goes to sending kids to school, and allows women to go to doctors—and not to lining the purses of already-wealthy conglomerates.

2. Our pieces are handcrafted by traditional and contemporary craftspeople.

We try and keep skills alive and use traditional methods in contemporary ways to keep tradition dynamic. If a non-traditional would-be crafts-person wants to learn handcrafting, we teach them in an apprentice-mode, since we are a learning studio. We aim to provide livelihoods. We therefore don't use machines as far as possible unless it is to aid the human hand. We are not anti-machine and not Luddites, but love the handmade and are more Arts and Craft peeps.

3. We aim to create emotionally-durable design which stays around longer as you love it.

We design classic pieces which are often whimsical and contemporary. We want our pieces to tug at your heart strings and become future heirlooms.

4. We take as long as we need to develop something-we are as slow fashion as they come.

We don't design as per mainstream trends or seasons. We want to shake the giant machine which controls the fashion world. We do love the idea of trends and give a nod to past fashion, but we do it when we think it is appropriate-not because we believe we have to. 

5.We design for customisation.

We often create unique pieces just for you, because we want our wearers to love our pieces and don't want them to end up in a landfill anytime soon. So, we customise and welcome collaborative fashion and collaborative design.