#069 ✰ Should I put a ring on it
SoaO: Charlotte's Cartier trinity ring • objet_ai • gold and diamonds
Hey there 👋 I’m Mathilde. We are Objet. We explore the intersection of consumerism, myth, satisfaction, desire, taste, joy, meaning and pride. Not specifically in that order. To brag at your next dinner, Objet is the french word for 'object' and should be pronounced 'OB-JEH'.
If you’re new here, welcome 👋
In today’s Objet journal:
Our mission 👉 Wait, what are they onto again?
Soul of an Objet 👉 Charlotte’s Cartier trinity ring
What’s up on the app 👉 Introducing objet_ai
Cool reads 👉 Gold and diamonds
Our mission
The relationship we, humans, have with shopping - and our objects as a whole - is broken: we want to bring back joy and pride. Objet is where style shops mindfully.
Soul of an Objet | Charlotte Bonnin
Sublime possessions have soul and meaning. Meet Charlotte’s Cartier trinity ring.
Charlotte spent many years immersed in the fashion, beauty and luxury industries, literally helping brands tell their stories. Kev and her met when they were 11 years old; and as far as he remembers, she's always been intentional about what to surround herself with. | Charlotte’s Objet profile
Hi Charlotte! So what's the backstory of this object?
This object was a present from my parents on my 30th birthday. It’s a very nice ring from Cartier, but it’s not just a ring. The cool thing about it, is that it’s engraved with my mothers and my name inside (Hélène – Charlotte) = because, fun fact, I was born on my mother’s 27th birthday! So, she also got, for her 57th birthday the same ring, with the same writing inside (Charlotte – Hélène). It’s actually the first time we have an object that binds us together in some way.
What object’s been your best investment?
Hard to say.. I really never invested a lot of money in any objects, for me I mean. The objects I value or to which I have a certain attachment were all presents and there really isn’t much of them. So from an attachment point of view I would say I am very attached to a designer lamp that I got from my boyfriend. I had been watching it for years before it landed on my console table.
Is there any other type of things you truly like to dig into?
I really love nice designer furniture’s and interior decoration.. I can spend hours scrolling through home decor accounts on Instagram or browsing through lifestyle magazines.. but never really moving forward with it.. I nourish my curiosity and inspiration…for one day!
Thank you!
👀 Did you know? Once you onboard on the app, you can respond to and engage with cool people like Charlotte in one click.
What’s up in the app
🌸 This week’s version brings along… a very first iteration of objet_ai, the only personal shopper truly incentivised on your long-term satisfaction.*
👉 once you post a bounty, click ‘ask objet_ai’ and it’ll give you the few best choices from Wirecutter.
Cutting through the noise? YES!
Give it a try and reach out for feedback!
*A longer post about our intentions with AI is under construction 😊
Cool reads.
Onto shinny golden nuggets and gems, then.
👑 About gold
A coincidence I came across -yet another excellent- piece from
, talking about gold this week.Did you know?
250 tonnes of earth is displaced in order to extract 1 carat of gold
208,874 tonnes of gold were mined throughout our human history
the horrifying reality of compressor mining (learn more in her article)
The most ethical option?
There is currently some tension in the industry about what best practice is:
a single artisanal mine where you can track the journey and chain of custody and support a community that relies on the mine for its livelihood (at whatever cost to the environment), or
an opaque recycling process where we make good use of the gold we have already plundered (…) “I feel very strongly that the way forward for jewellery is not mining new materials - it’s all about recycled. We often don’t know what’s in the gold or where it comes from; but that deed was done a long time ago. If you’re making jewellery now, your responsibility is not to create even more damage.”
***
💎 About diamonds
Most diamonds were created 1 to 3 billion years ago, pushed to the earth’s surface by volcanic eruptions.
It got me down the rabbit hole of diamonds, and here’s what I wanna remember:
Provenance vs origin, beware
The words ‘provenance’ and ‘origin’ have two very different meanings in the diamond business,” (…) ‘Origin’ means where the diamond was mined. ‘Provenance’ usually means its last stop before it got to you.
Diamonds are found in two places
Miles underground the earth’s surface in ancient kimberlite formations (extracted via pipe mining) and in riverbeds and the ocean floor (extracted via alluvial mining).
Pipe mining vs alluvial mining
According to sources, between 15 and 20% of diamonds come from informal alluvial sources.
The problem with alluvial mining
If alluvial mining is performed by a large corporation (…) which adheres to strict ethical and environmental standards, consumers can have faith that the practice is ethically and environmentally sound. It is informal alluvial mining (i.e. artisanal mining)—the kind done by hand in unsafe conditions by non-unionized workers—that presents a number of troubling issues. (…) Since informal alluvial mining is mainly unregulated, conditions are unsafe and unsanitary.
Blood diamonds
Blood diamonds, also known as conflict diamonds, are defined as diamonds mined in war zones sold to finance armed conflicts against legitimate governments. These diamonds are often mined using forced labor and are traded illegally to fund violent conflicts and human rights abuses.
The Kimberley Process
The Kimberley Process is a multilateral trade regime established in 2003 with the goal of preventing the flow of conflict (blood) diamonds.
And while you can feel relatively confident (there’s debate about how well the Kimberley Process actually works) that diamonds sold through legitimate sources are not funding rebel-led civil wars (coined “conflict-free” in some marketing materials), this narrowly-focused certification process makes it perfectly legal to sell diamonds tainted by violence, child labor, poverty, and environmental atrocities.
The most ethical option?
Lab-created diamonds
Completely man-made, these diamonds look identical to natural diamonds, and, since they’re “grown” in a lab, they are formed without any risk to miners or the environment. They also have little to no resale value.
Canadian diamonds (oh, Kev 🥰)
A major source of high-quality diamonds, many of them completely traceable to their source [and] mined in line with the country’s strict environmental and fair labor laws.
Recycled diamonds
Dubbed “the world’s largest diamond resource” by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), recycled diamonds may seems like an off-beat option, but they’re increasingly popular.
Nothing?
The myth of a diamond is one of the thing that is so deeply rooted in society that even the most disruptor people I know haven’t questioned it (ourselves included). Can we change that?
If you got all the way here and have been seeking a better way to experience shopping & enjoy your possessions, alongside enthusiastic, not-so-serious souls, try Objet:
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Til next time,
Mathilde 💁🏻♀️