LaRue & Co Brand Values
LaRue & Co Fine Jewelry For Humans is an e-commerce based handcrafted jewelry and home goods brand specializing in sustainability and inclusivity. We make it our mission to be as sustainable as possible, while also teaching sustainability to others in the industry.
We are size inclusive, offering a large array of sizes in our fine, artisan jewelry. Ring sizes range from 2 to 16.5 inches, with bracelets from 5 to 13 inches, and necklaces from 13 to 30 inches in length. Some of our more delicate jewelry tops out at 24 inches in length, as the delicate nature of the pieces is more likely to result in breakage at longer lengths.
Gender inclusion is very important to us, particularly in this day and age. We design LGBTQ jewelry, and our company is owned by a bisexual female who wishes to support her community. It is our opinion that material objects should not have a gender, and that anyone should be able to wear whatever suits their individual style and feels most comfortable. There are pieces for everyone in our edgy jewelry collection, including pieces considered more traditionally “masculine” or “feminine”.
We make it our mission to be as sustainable as possible, utilizing recycled precious metals and stones straight from the source, along with compostable and recyclable packaging and shipping materials. This can be challenging, as all of our tools typically come wrapped in plastic with oils to keep them lubricated. Lubrication with oils makes sense for machines with moving parts, but we feel that oiling tools does not make sense.
The sheer volume of packaging materials for the components of jewelry and home goods is overwhelming. We began with copious amounts of research to determine how to package our products in a way that is sustainable. We use compostable and recyclable mailers and bubble wrap from an amazing company called Hero Packaging. Our artisan jewelry boxes are made of compostable cardboard. We are currently working on a good quality compostable sticker.
LaRue & Co recycles our metals, meaning we melt older designs down to scrap metal over and over. We also try to find recycled metals, which have been melted down and reshaped. Another of our sustainable practices is buying stones for our ethical jewelry straight from the source, which removes the middle man, resulting in less travel and environmental impact. Buying stones from sources where they are native and abundant avoids digging up the earth to find them.
For example, emeralds are native to Columbia, Brazil, and Afghanistan. Purchasing them from other areas results in whole mining compounds just to locate one small deposit of stone, with the resulting machines and pollution. Opals are native to Ethiopia and Australia, and aquamarine is native to India. This is where we obtain the tradition of something blue for the bride to bring good luck!
We also make our natural soy wax candles sustainably, with essential oils that are better for your kids, pets, and yourself. We have a refill service where you can reuse the jars; or send one of your choosing to fill with your favorite LaRue scents. We also teach trade secrets such as how to determine whether stones are real or fake to make the best purchasing decisions. If you are looking for handcrafted, sustainable, inclusive jewelry and home goods, we’d love to hear from you!
xo,
LARUE