In a small workshop in Woodstock, Cape Town, Ashley Heather pours her love of sustainable product creation and passion for jewellery making into each and every delicate and contemporary piece she creates for her eponymous brand.

Through a complicated process of extraction, she collects precious metals from old circuit boards sourced from all over South Africa and turns these into unique jewellery that’s both stylish and guilt-free.

After completing her Honours degree in fine art, Ashley Heather was unsure of her next step, but found inspiration when she visited a jeweller friend, who was melting a crucible of silver when she walked in.

“I was immediately spellbound by its shimmering viscosity. I signed up for a part time course the next day and in one lesson signed up for a full time intensive yearlong programme,” she says.

Ashley had toyed with the idea of becoming a jeweller but says that she was deterred by the environmental and social issues associated with precious metals and mining. These concerns turned her love of precious metals into a mission to find a way to work with the medium she loved without compromising her values.

“The rest was a process of research and discovery. E-waste is one of the fastest-growing waste sources in the world and proper processing is becoming more and more critical, it seemed like a natural fit.”

Ashley Heather Jewellery was born in 2011 and has been thriving ever since. “The response has been really great, people are excited by what we are doing and I love how people are really embracing and interrogating ideas around sustainability. I think the simplicity of our designs and our absolute obsession with craftsmanship are also key in people’s positive responses. Sustainable materials need to be supported by good quality design otherwise we are just filling the market with more ‘stuff’ to contribute to our ‘throwaway culture’.”

She adds that South Africans are beginning to understand the very real social and environmental consequences of their consumption patterns. “Ethical standards are really the only option for the fashion industry, it’s quite simply just too important to be a passing trend and I believe South Africa has very much embraced this. We still have a long way to go but I think we are definitely moving in the right direction.”

Her talent hasn’t gone unnoticed, she was selected to participate in the Emerging Creatives Programme at Design Indaba 2011 and won Most Innovative Product at Decorex Joburg 2013. It’s fantastic to see a girl with this refreshing mind-set being recognised for her efforts.

This is one of the local brands paving the way for more young South African designers and manufacturers to embrace a sustainable approach to the products they create. What Ashley Heather Jewellery proves is that recycled isn’t synonymous with undesirable, in fact, it is an opportunity to make a statement using your skills to create something that’s really different.

Find out more about this inspiring brand on Facebook and Instagram or visit the website.