RIGBY LEIGH

Shaped by nature, Rigby Leigh creates one of a kind jewelry rooted in originality and timelessness.

Using materials that are naturally beautiful and chosen intentionally, Rigby Leigh is transparent about where everything comes from because they love the quality and the people and places who provide them. Every piece is created by hand with intention at every part of the process.

We had the opportunity to speak with founder David Watkins and hear about his career path that led him into jewelry making. He speaks to the challenges he faced when developing his techniques, digs deeper into why ‘nothing synthetic and nothing wasted’ is at the center of the brand’s core ethics, and how each original piece is meant to be worn and loved.

Interview NICOLE GAVRILLES
Photography JONATHAN TASKER
Set Design JOCEYLN CABRAL

Listen to the audio below:

NICOLE GAVRILLES Great. Well, Hi, David. Thanks for sitting down and chatting about Rigby Leigh with me today. I'm really excited to learn more about your background and more into your process on how you craft your jewelry. Especially about your traceability and ethical mindset that you have in place for your brand. So I want to start off with you telling us a little bit about your background and how you got into jewelry making?

DAVID WATKINS I definitely didn't go straight into jewelry. It was quite a long road there. I actually did a lot of different things. I studied law at university. In England, you pick what degree you're going to do at 16. And I didn't know what I wanted to do at 16. After that, I moved to Australia for a year and did some bartending and any sort of job that I could find.

NG How old were you when you moved to Australia?

DW I turned 22 in Australia and I was living in Melbourne after a year there but then I came back to the UK to work in the legal field. I worked for six months in Legal Compliance and I really struggled with it. Since I'm dyslexic, the environment was tough and aggressive but I was always able to overcome that. No law and legal stuff really preys on dyslexia like having to read really large volumes of dense text quickly and make assessments on it. And that was a real struggle for me. So I became a jeweler in New York. [laughs] No, no, I actually changed jobs and I went straight into charity. I worked for Breast Cancer Now in London. Also, while I was at university, I was part of an organization called RAG or Raising and Giving. I was either at the library studying or in the RAG office raising money for charity, which was really amazing. I feel like I learned a lot more from RAG than I actually did from my law degree in a lot of ways. After working for charity, I ended up moving out to Canada because at the time, I'd also begun acting, which was something that came on me later in life. I had been acting and performing in musicals in England and then when I went out to Canada to continue acting. I needed some sort of job I could find on the side of acting, so I stumbled into this carpentry position. The previous carpenter left at this warehouse I began working at, And I said, alright, I can do this – since my dad taught me when I was really young to fix things. He was such an unbelievably loving and encouraging presence and always encouraged me to figure things out. He gave me that really positive mindset. I basically had to start running this full woodshop where we made cabinets, benches and tables and it was a trial by fire for sure, and it was scary a lot of the time. But luckily, I still have all of my fingers, which is not necessarily a given in carpentry.

NG So you basically learned everything on the job?

DW I did. I had all the notes from the previous carpenter and it was incredible.That is really how I got into making jewelry via a rather circuitous route – I just started making. In my spare time, I started making these wooden rings which again, I don't know why there was no particular reason that I started doing that, but I just did. I was sanding them by hand since I didn't have any turning tools. They were these knobbly, lumpy things that would break after I wore them for an hour because they were just solid wood all the way around which is not very strong. So it would just crack along the grain. Then after some time, I came to New York to study acting, I met my partner here, and went back home to England. I knew I needed a job on the side of acting and for whatever reason making rings had just stuck. And so I just started.

NG You spoke briefly about your Dad - was there anyone in your family that had history in any type of craftsmanship, art, or anyone who had a creative background?

DW So my grandma on my dad's side is a phenomenal painter. This isn't very good for the audio, but you can actually see the painting above my fasting machine. It was painted by my grandma.

NG Oh, that's beautiful.

DW Yeah, she was an incredible watercolor artist. She never did anything with it and never sold any. But she just loved doing it. She really encouraged that in me when I was younger. On my mother's side as well, the Rigby's, which we'll get into that later - they were all very creative. The only person I have and again, this seems like it should be the link to how I started making jewelry but it genuinely isn't, my Auntie Mary on my mother's side was a jeweler. She was a reflexologist and she'd been doing that for a very long time while looking for a creative outlet. She took a jewelry class at the local community center near her and she eventually built that over years into a business that started doing really well out of her garden studio that she eventually built. She was mostly like a silversmith. I never interacted with her, saw her make jewelry, or even her studio. I had sort of seen her stuff, but by the time she really was going with it, I moved out to Australia and I was always constantly on the move. So the fact that I ended up making jewelry is almost completely unlinked. Once I really started to make jewelry myself, I was like, I need to go to Auntie Mary. And that’s when she taught me how to solder my first ring to connect two ends previously unconnected. It was an amazing experience and I still have the ring.

NG I read that you draw inspiration from Ancient Rome. Can you speak more about what drew you to that time period and how it's incorporated into your work?

DW I first became interested in ancient Rome when I read these books by an author named Robert Harris. He has a series of three books called Imperium, Lustrum, and Emperor. They describe Marcus Cicero, who was a very famous orator present at the end of the Roman Republic through Julius Caesar turning Rome into an empire. It was essentially a fascinating period of Roman history. From there, I started listening to podcasts by Mike Duncan called the History of Rome which I would listen to while I was doing carpentry. I was always most interested in the craft in ancient Rome. Since the Romans conquered so much of the world at the time, so much culture flowed straight into the city of Rome. All of a sudden the craft streets had influences from Greece, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and from all the relative corners of the globe. All of these unique styles, techniques, and traditions of making came flooding in. The Romans genuinely didn't invent many things but they perfected all these new techniques and incorporated it into themselves. It was a bubbling pot of craft. One thing I love and when I think of the Roman’s craft, is when you can see when a craft is flourishing. From the growth of craft in Rome, there was an increase in developments for tools and what was used for drilling. They couldn’t drill in the same way that we drill now with a motor. They had to create a certain spring or belt driven pump action as a tool to make their jewelry.

What I love about their jewelry is that they are so imperfect. You can still see these 2000 year old tool marks. There are some pieces that they made then, we'd struggle to make them now. They were invested in that craft and were so intentional with their work. For me, I took away this combination of trying and testing new techniques and sort of putting all of this intention into a piece.

NG That's beautiful. Okay, so moving back to the present day. What was the driving force for launching Rigby Leigh and what helped you decide to take the leap? And where does the name Rigby Leigh come from?

DW The driving force was actually relatively mechanical in some ways. I was running a jewelry company in England, which was going relatively well. I made things until I had a product that began to sell. Because of the niche style that I had stumbled upon completely by accident, I didn't know this was going to blow up, which was combining wood and gold into wood-lined rings. There happened to be makers using this technique in America, and almost no one in England was making it. Essentially, my business started doing well way before I was ready for it and I spent about two and a half years running to catch up with myself making loads of mistakes and trying to figure out how to fix them all and doing everything as it went. It was phenomenal but it was almost like a University of making. All whilst I've been building this in the background, I had been working on my visa to come over to America, because by this point my partner and I had gotten married. I was preparing two people in England to take over my business before I moved to America and then COVID hit and all of a sudden it was full lockdown. I couldn't see them or train them. I couldn't do anything.

NG This was while you were in England?

DW Yeah and then the visa process paused for about six months. And as soon as it got back going, I got the interview. After the interview, they issued the visa. I actually had my flight booked after Christmas and then a new strain appeared and everyone started shutting their borders to the UK. I changed my flight and flew out just before Christmas because I couldn't wait since I didn't know how long the borders were going to be shut. I had to pack up my jewelry studio overnight before I flew out the next morning. I stayed up for 12 hours packing up my jewelry studio throughout the night putting it all on a pallet which was an unbelievably stressful experience. I hope I don't have to do that ever again. Luckily my dad, my lovely wonderful encouraging dad, was like I'll handle when the guys come to pick it up and he drove me to the airport. I came to America and looked at opening my UK jewelry company up from here. But since my price point was not that high and the shipping to the UK is about $100, it just wasn't possible at that time. I was in a good market but I just had to shut it down. There was no other option. I would love to have kept it going with some people there but COVID made that impossible. So that's a very long winded way of saying that was what motivated the jump, because I had to start a new company. My tools were in limbo on a ship for about two and a half months. And my partner found me a workshop space that I had to jump on, because it's hard to find space in New York, and it was perfect. So I sat in an empty studio with no tools and nothing to do. In the meantime, I was doing woodwork on the side and making some of our furniture for our apartment. My mind just started working and I flew down this rabbit hole of this process of casting in wood. I actually still have the initial carving that I did from a piece of scrap cherry wood on the floor with no tools. And this was a full month and a half before I'd even be able to test it. I remember just looking at this scrap being like, “will it work?” Also, the name, Rigby Leigh comes from my mother and my mother's side of the family. My mother’s maiden name was Rigby, her full name was Diana Rigby, and she was from Leigh. So she was a Rigby of Leigh – Rigby Leigh.

NG Love that. What materials are you drawn to using for your jewelry?

DW We already spoke about wood because the carpentry wood I was always drawn to, but I really wanted to explore it in a different way, which is what generated this casting in wood process and then beyond that I use gold. I don't really use silver mostly because I'm drawn to gold because it doesn't tarnish or braid away. It's a beautiful metal to work with. The rings that we still have from Ancient Rome or Greece, you could wear today, because they're gold and it lasts – it doesn't go anywhere unless you melt it down. And in terms of melting it down, that's also something you can do, it's recyclable. Gold is such a pure metal that it's so easy to use it and then melt it down and then use it again and again, it's an Incredible material to work with. The other two materials which again I'm really drawn to are limestones and gemstones. I was not ever even interested in jewelry when I was younger. Jewelry never particularly captivated me. I don't know why, I guess because I just never had that much exposure to it. But gemstones captivated me from the youngest age I can remember. I read lots of fancy literature like The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion also by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Chronicles of Narnia, and really anything you can put your hands on. Especially all of the games that I played like Legend of Zelda, where everything revolved around these gemstones that had held some kind of power or meaning to it. I love to use Diamond and Sapphire. I do occasionally use Ruby, I can speak to why I don't use Ruby as much. Although important to know that Ruby is just the same thing as sapphire – once the Sapphire becomes red enough, we call it a Ruby because it's corundum. The reason I use diamonds and sapphires is because they're the hardest natural stones at 10 on the Mohs Scale, which is the scale we use to measure hardness, and sapphires are nine. So they really last. Sapphires are so stunning because they come in every color you can think of. I use antique diamonds that were hand cut with all different facets, shapes, lengths, and sizes around the 1800s. I use Montana sapphires exclusively because they're mined right here in the US and mined ethically – you never need to worry about who's been working on this, how much they've been paid, and what processes they've been using because it's clearly and well legislated here. I get my stones directly from Montana and then I cut, facet, and polish the sapphires myself. I try to make sure that the materials I use are really simple, clear and easy to source ethically.

“It’s the natural woodgrain and the process of cooling the metal that decides what they look like...I just facilitate it but it’s nature that designs it.”

NG Yeah, that makes sense. Really quickly. You mentioned that you hand cut your sapphires. Can you tell me a little bit more about that and that process?

DW Yeah, so I hand cut my sapphires. Unfortunately, I don't hand cut diamonds because the diamonds I use are antiques only. With a lot of the things that I do, I kind of started out of nowhere. I tend to jump into things head first. I got this old 1940s fasting machine from Detroit, Michigan. It's actually sitting right behind you. The head is cast out of solid bronze and you can tell they were cutting on that machine 80 years ago. There's no digital gauges, nothing to help you measure anything out because this was the technology that they had then They made things to last. That machine will last way after I'm gone, for sure. But it is hard to cut the perfect stone on it and that's what drew me to the machine. It looked like it had been sitting in someone's basement for like 40 years.

NG What is special about the gold that you specifically source? And can you tell us a little bit about the type of gold that you use?

DW I get my gold from a company called Hoover and Strong. I was introduced to them very early on when coming to the States. I use their harmony, recycled gold. And it's incredible because recycled gold, which I explained is very easy to do, but unfortunately with a lot of recycling processes, they use very harmful chemicals and those chemicals can often be dumped in the form of water waste. There's a lot of issues there. I want to be careful but calling things recycled doesn't necessarily mean that it's been done ethically or sustainably. And there are lots of situations where it may not have been. Hoover and Strong are so incredible with this, because 75% their process generates 75% less wastage than the standardized regulated refining process. They’re SCSC certified, which means they're responsible refiners certified. They don't dump any water waste and have safe processes that filter out any of the nasty, harmful chemicals. They are never putting any of that back into the environment. And the best thing about them is you can go on to Hoover and Strong's website, where they communicate their transparency. They're just so open and clear and a perfect match for me.

NG That's really humbling to hear that there are companies that source gold responsibly and promote transparency by communicating their ethics. I love how they’ve been true to: “We're going to figure out a better process that works for us and what we believe in, to not harm the environment, and in result, offer this high quality product to people that want to use it.” What drew you towards making your brand traceable?

DW Yeah, there just wasn't any reason not to. It's just as simple as that. I never even set out with the goal to necessarily make my business traceable. But there was just no reason not to disclose my sources. If I'm not doing anything shady and if I'm not doing anything negative with my sources, then why not demonstrate them? A rising tide lifts all boats. I would much rather people see what I'm doing and copy or emulate it. The more that we do that and the more money that we can give to these responsible sources, the greater pull they're going to have over the market. We need to understand more about what things actually cost.

NG Those are really good points. Can you speak to the sapphires, gems, and colored stones used in your jewelry and the specific qualities about them? Is there anything specific that you look for?

DW I look for diamonds to be a genuine antique cut diamond, like an estate diamond or something that's been pulled from jewelry, you can tell the more you do this, especially the difference between a stone that's been cut recently. The good thing about the old mine cut diamonds is very few people would ever cut an old mine cut now because you're not getting the most out of the stone. And with diamonds, it's very mathematical, it's all about, let's get the most weight out of the stone possible. You don't get that with the old mine cuts because they were cut by hand. But I do make sure that I look for genuine antique stones which tend to be a little bit warmer in color, not always, but tend to be. When there's a lot of clear asymmetry, you can tell that they've been cut by hand. For sapphires, I look for a really wide range within Montana rough sapphires. I love them all. But what I'm really looking for is something with a really nice, unique rough shape and an interesting color. Luckily, we get these incredible color ranges from Montana. What I'm looking for, especially with a stone, is when I know exactly by looking at it how I want to cut it. The rough stone sort of shows me what it wants to look like.

NG So the stones find you in a sense.

DW Yeah, the stones tell me what they want to be. Their shape sort of defines how I'm going to cut them. I love restrictions and I love not controlling things. I like to let things be what they naturally want to be.

NG Very well said. Your technique in general is unlike anything I have seen. Can you speak more about your technique and how you perfected your process?

DW Casting jewelry in wood is not something that anyone else does. And in a lot of ways, for a good reason because it's really difficult to do. And for me, it was all experimentation. The idea came to me like I said before, when I was just sitting around my workshop, I didn’t have my tools yet and I was making things from what I was making our furniture for our flat, and I just started carving out these negatives of rings in the wood. And thinking, well, if I could pour the gold in, I would have a really interesting and natural way of creating rings and pieces of jewelry. It took ages for my tools to arrive and once they did I just began testing – and it was only failures in the beginning. It's hard to cast in wood because wood wants to combust as soon as something is hot like molten Gold touches it. That combustion creates gas that forms pockets and those pockets mean that the gold can't perform together correctly. It took eight months before I got a complete casted ring. And I had all of these rings with breaks in them that weren't fully casted. I tried everything I could think of and I spoke to lots of different people. And I'll be honest, not negatively, but most people told me not to do it. Because most people with understanding of how to cast things pointed out all of the problems with it and said, for all of these reasons, this process probably isn't going to work and you should do a different process. But it was an obsession and I just couldn't let go of it. And the more and more I did it, the more interesting things started to happen as I casted them. I have my 174 failures sitting on my shelf in my workshop to remind me of what it took to get to where I am now. It was heartbreaking but it was also uplifting and soul destroying at the same time, an absolute roller coaster of emotions to do this. And to not even know if you're going to be able to get something at the end of it. If it was ever going to work – it was crushing but also kind of motivating. And I just developed this process. I had read somewhere that a Roman jeweler would bundle straw really tightly together, pack it with clay, and then cast [gold] into it. There were different methods that they tried with casting actually directly in clay. I'm almost certain they would have casted in wood at some point although I'm sure we've lost that now. That's really where my inspiration came from. And I still have my first completed ring – it's the natural woodgrain and the process of cooling the metal that decides what they look like, not me. I just facilitate it but it's nature that designs it.

NG How did that feel?

DW Unbelievable. I remember running over to Nick, my jeweler friend who works in the same studio as me, with this complete dream, like running up the stairs and just waving it in his face. It was an unreal feeling of actually doing it. And of course, it was by no means a straight path from there. After I managed to complete it, I would say one in five casts I did were complete, four or five were failures. And the more I iterated, I would have a really high failure rate. I would then remelt the gold and recast it. Of course, you always lose a little in the process when it slips into the pulls in the wood. And now, I still have a relatively high failure rate, I would say probably one in five casts now is a failure, depending on what I do.

“I would love one of my rings in 2,000 years to be dug from the ground. I want these rings to last, to be passed down...You should wear them all the time, let it age with you and become part of you. It’s not perfect to begin with and it shouldn’t be perfect.”

NG That's amazing. Just ending on that. I think this speaks to your thoughts and values of the idea that jewelry should last forever and become an heirloom piece. We just ended on these are one of a kind pieces made from high quality traceable materials. Can you tell me more about what that means to you?

DW Yeah, for me, all I do is with meaning. Jewelry doesn't do anything, jewelry is. It's not something that we use to do something with, it's something that we give meaning to and that holds meaning for us. These beautiful objects that we buy to represent ourselves or some experience we're going through or some idea that we have. And that for me is really where the beauty of jewelry is. It's something that for me transcends occasion and the idea that you can pass that down throughout generations is a large part of my motivation for making these. I would love one of my rings in 2000 years to be dug from the ground. I want these rings to last, to be passed down, and I want them to be worn. You should wear them all the time, let it age with you and become part of you. It's not perfect to begin with and it shouldn't be perfect. And when it ends, it should always be what it is.

NG A great way to end that. One thing I think is important in the role of jewelry today is how we wear it and how we buy it. You spoke a little bit about that. Can you describe who your customer is?

DW I often ask myself, who is my customer? Who is buying? Because I am my customer. I'm lucky enough that I get these really lovely reviews from a lot of my customers. I get quite a lot of repeat customers, which is incredible because I get to hear why and what they love about the pieces. Some of the nicest things I've ever heard about myself have come from these reviews, which is fantastic and incredibly uplifting.

And there was one review that described it really well. This individual talks about having grown up in a really old home that was built by their great-grandfather. She could remember running her hand down the banister of the stairs and feeling the lumps and bumps the tool marks that have been left there. She had this real poignant memory of the fact that every nail in the wood beam was shaped differently because they'd all been cut by hand. This was before we had mass-produced nails where they have been wrought and cut from iron, probably by the local blacksmith and each one was different. The reason that she loved and bought my jewelry was because she said that my jewelry felt like that. It felt like something that had been done with intention that you could feel and see the imperfectness that arose out of an intention, for crafting by hand without having a huge machine operation behind it. And I think that in a lot of ways is who my customer is. It's someone who looks for the hand built imperfection and the intention that's gone into the piece. They’re not looking for the shiniest biggest stone, but are looking for an expression of intention. In my case, I don't love to use the term artistic, but I love to use the term natural and my pieces are an expression of nature.

NG When a stranger is able to connect memories from their childhood that were so special and iconic for them and bridge that as a connection to your jewelry is probably the best compliment that you can ever get.

DW Yeah and for that piece, her mom had just recently passed away, and we used the diamonds from her jewelry, which again, was incredible to be entrusted with that. And I agree, it was a very humbling thing to be a part of. And that review was an incredible thing to read.

NG So it shows that not just traceability is at the core of Rigby Leigh, but also ethics. When factoring in production of your products sustainably, what areas are the most important to you?

DW Good question. The first thing I think about are the ethics of how I’m sourcing, which to me I ask: Has this method of sourcing this product damaged the environment? Has it damaged the human population of the environment? Do we have people who are working in unsafe conditions, underpaid, undervalued? Do we have harmful wasteful products being put back into the earth? Sourcing for me is really where it all begins - then I try to think about my process specifically. How can I cause the least amount of harmful waste, ideally, zero harmful waste? Not using chemicals or silicates. There are a lot of silicates used in the jewelry industry, especially for casting when people carve in wax, such as a silicate cement where they pour the gold into, is incredibly carcinogenic. I ask myself, ‘What environment do I want to work in? What do I not want to put into my body? What do I not want to put into the earth?’ I use that to define what I do and don't use and what products I do and don't use. I try to use as little waste as possible. I am naturally very drawn towards thrift and recycling so I tend to make a lot of my own tools. I'm so lucky that there's a carpentry shop in the main foyer of my studio’s building which I use a lot of off-cuts of wood from the carpenters to make a lot of my tools and also because that's a lovely natural recycling process. I do source my wood for making the molds which eventually are used for the boxes that the rings are presented in. I was lucky enough to get to know and speak to someone who worked in forestry in the US and was able to learn a lot from them since I really didn't know about the difference between clear cutting and non-clear cutting. I source locally from places that don't clear cut. They pick individual trees and when used correctly, wood is one of the most sustainable resources that we have. And finally, the packaging that I use is all recycled packaging. The ring comes in the box made of the casting so there's no waste there. I guess I think of it in this two stage process: What am I sourcing and then what am I outboarding?

NG Yeah, I think your process definitely speaks so much to repurposing and recycling the materials around you. And that's also what makes your jewelry stand out so beautifully. I know we spoke to some challenges before, what has been the most challenging hurdle you've come across or had to overcome thus far?

DW Well, a really challenging hurdle was moving to New York during COVID and then setting up a business here with no follow through with my old business financially. That was really tough. I was very lucky in that I started to come out of the nosedive at the right time. But in the end, I went down to a very small number to get there. I was really lucky to have the support of people around me. Financially, I almost bankrupted myself.

And we spoke about it before, but actually casting the jewelry in wood was unbelievably tough. All of these methods of making and what I do around sourcing have happened so naturally, because it's just what I want to do. I don't consider myself an authority on everything in the jewelry industry, just what I do and making sure that what I do works and is good and it's clean. But yeah, the hardest thing was setting up in New York and creating this process. All of that uncertainty around will it ever work and will I ever sell and recoup losses, etc.

NG We haven't seen a huge shift in transparency within the jewelry industry because of how the supply chains have been in place for years. What do you feel is next for the jewelry industry? And where do you want to see change?

DW Yeah. You know, I think it’s slowly getting better, but by smaller increments than it’s being projected outwards. What I hope will happen and what I would love to see actually, almost initially comes from the consumer side. Whilst there is this idea of getting the biggest stone for the least amount of money, we're always going to have problems with supply chains because there are always negative things you can do to get the stone cheaper. And whilst things are being shopped on that basis, those supply chains are going to thrive and flourish. And so I would love to see, which I think is happening, this change from the consumer side where we really want to know and understand where our products are coming from and how they're being made. I hope that continues. And I think we are starting to lean towards non-traditional ideas. I am hesitant to name names, but a certain producer of diamonds predates at around 80 years ago essentially changed the face of the engagement jewelry industry by coming up with some incredibly business intelligence slogans like ‘Diamonds are a girl's best friend’, ‘Three months of your salary’, which means that you've created a sliding scale for everyone to buy a ring on. But whilst there is so much money to be made, and so much call for the price to be kept down that shady supply chain, I think it’s going to stay with us. And I'm not saying that companies aren't cleaning up their act because they are in certain respects cleaning up their act. I hope the more we start to understand the true cost of a stone, the true cost of gold, and the true cost of a ring that has been not made in a factory but made by hands, has been a considered purchase. And it should be worn for a long time rather than, ‘I'm going to purchase to wear it for a very little amount of time and then buy more.’ The more we shift towards slow fashion and considered purchasing, the more accountability that will create, and the less shady supply chains are going to thrive. We're going to see more money in the hands of responsible sources. From my side of the industry I see it's happening, but it just needs to continue. Along this vein, we just need to give more money into the hands of the people who are sourcing stones ethically.

NG I would love to see that too. And it's good to hear that you're seeing aspects of that already starting to shift people's mindsets - which in return elevates the voices of the people that are sourcing mindfully and ethically. Is there someone in your industry that you admire for their approach to jewelry making?

DW Yeah, there are a couple of places I want to mention. The first in terms of a jeweler is a designer now called Justin Duance and he's English from Cornwall. Ethically, he's always stood out to me as something to look up to. I still remember very early into my jewelry career, I was lucky enough to stumble across his work. I remember reading a sentence on his website that said, ‘We love working with lots of different stones. But if we can't source ethically, we won't do it.’ And that was such a powerful phrase to me - they will turn away work if they can't source it in a method that is in tune with their ethics. I just love that – I love how finite and certain that sentence was. I love him and his company for that.

A couple of other companies that I love – Hoover and Strong continue to be incredibly inspiring to me. I love seeing how traceable and clear everything is and how they just give you every piece of information.

Misfit Diamonds, which is a Canadian diamond company, they use largely Canadian and antique diamond sourced stones, they use ethically sourced stones and I have a great relationship with them.

Rough Diamond World here in the city, which also is focused on recycled diamonds and ethical sourcing.

And a couple other people in the city that are more jeweler facing like Columbia Gem House, essentially started in the 70s, began this ethical, colored stone sourcing practice that really wasn't in place before then. And they developed this body of ethics and came up with this scale from one to five on how ethically something has been sourced and how traceable it is to its origin. And again, also all the people that I buy the rough stones from are often from retirees or people that just go and mine for fun. And I know them personally. I'm always inspired by other people who are following along the same path and the same thing that I love. And I find that we all sort of share an idea of beauty that is inspiring and reassuring. It makes me feel at home.

NG It's always lovely to hear when a lot of your inspiration is directly from the people you're working with. And finally, what impression or legacy do you hope your work with Rigby Leigh will leave behind?

DW I don't know. I think as someone who maybe feels a little bit left behind by a lot of the technological advances, not that I'm saying they're a bad thing. I think they can be good, but can be bad – it depends on how you use them. As technology advances and becomes more a part of our lives and defines how we make, create, and do things, I still have so much passion for things made by hand. If I could go back 2000 years to a jewelry workshop in Ancient Rome and make one of my rings, I could do it and I would end up with a similar product to what I make now. I hope that Rigby Leigh leaves an avenue backwards, an avenue that shows that the imperfect and handcrafted creative pieces are still worth doing. In a world of CAD, 3D software, and 3D printing of jewelry, I hope that my company leaves an avenue back to the person who just wants to sit at a bench and make something imperfect with their hands.

NG And that's the perfect way to end our conversation. Thank you so much David for speaking with One. And if you want to read more about Rigby Leigh to check out his process and his jewelry, you can find Rigby Leigh on Instagram and on rigbyleigh.com

For more information about Rigby Leigh, follow on instagram. Rigby Leigh jewelry are available on rigbyleigh.com

Interview published for ONE Magazine Online