60
JEWELRY DESIGN
The Golden Girl Text by Magda Wallmont Photos by Larsen Soleto
SUSTAINABLE GOLD DIGGING BECAME A PART OF DESIGNER GISA GOLPIRA’S DNA FROM A VERY EARLY AGE. IT FOLLOWED HER THROUGH TO ADULTHOOD AND INSPIRED HER TO ESTABLISH GOLPIRA IN 2013, A JEWELRY BRAND SYNONYMOUS WITH THE “NO DIRTY GOLD” CREDO. Aimed at raising consumer awareness about the impacts of irresponsible gold mining, the campaign was launched a decade ago by the environmental group Earthworks. Today, it is a policy adhered to by renowned brands like Tiffany & Co., Cartier and Helzberg Diamonds, amongst a hundred others. Intentional or not, the sustainability concept for GOLPIRA is well-timed. It coincides with the implementation of European Union legislation, which wants to steer companies importing minerals such as tantalum, tungsten and gold away from volatile regions where their trade could fund or fuel violence. Originally from Germany, Gisa Golpira grew up watching her mother and partner dig for sustainable gold in the jungle of Peru. It was here, the 30-year old designer says, that her love and respect for nature nurtured her jewelry venture, which bears her last name. “For me, the jungle was a playground, but I had to learn quickly that you can only survive in nature if you respect nature,” she says, playfully adding that the first friend she made in the jungle was a monkey called Izauro. Gisa also interacted with and learned from indigenous
children in the jungle, the exact location of which she likes to maintain a secret. While she played hide and seek and learned how to catch fish, her custodians dug for gold nuggets in the area and sold them to collectors around the world. Gold nuggets, the brand’s specialty, are large masses of gold found in soil and stream beds, commonly known as alluvial deposits. How they form is a bit of a mystery, but it is believed they derive from quartz reefs and are exposed during erosion. The nuggets can be up to 97% pure. After a couple of years in the jungle, Gisa was sent back to Germany to attend elementary school and later carried on to study fashion management. Inevitably, her journey took her back to the gold nuggets of the Peruvian jungle and she came to realize the importance of consumers understanding the true back story of the gold industry. “During my travels as a model, I figured out that more and more people are becoming aware of textiles, food, and blood diamonds, for example. But I was wondering why nobody talked about the industrial gold digging process… so I decided to make it a subject.”