In E.S. Issue 40, we tackle recycled fashion as the creative wave of the future.

• Recycled fashion gets designers’ creative juices flowing with startlingly original effects. We pay homage to the technological developments of making the best of what we’ve got.
• Kara Cook, our DIY Doyenne, has inherited a cherished leather laptop bag from our publisher, Trevor Martin. You should have seen her face light up: She was practically drunk with inspiration of how to put the supple, broken-in leather to good use. In fact, she had so many ideas, we’ve broken up the DIY projects into three parts. Volume 1 of The Leather Diaries appears here, and stay tuned for the next installment in the series, coming soon.
• As an element, gold is one of the easiest precious metals to recycle, and boy have jewelry designers picked up on that fact. Check out this slideshow of five amazing metalworkers and their glittering creations.
• Have a closet full of clothes that are almost right, but not quite? Or an eye for vintage, but no DIY hemming skills? Fear not. Our guide to tailoring will show you how much you can expect to pay to alter your beloved dresses, shirts, jackets, and pants.
• Finally, in the spirit of recycled content (it’s nice how that works out thematically), we bring to you Seam Ripper, our collection of five stories reprinted from the Behind the Seams blog. We hope to see you in the comments soon!

As an element, pure gold — the 24-karat kind — can be melted down and refashioned an infinite number of times with no change to its strength, shine, or molecular structure. It’s even easy to reclaim alloys, which are used to make the metal harder and more durable. Most frequently alloys are created by combining pure gold with nickel or palladium (for white gold), silver (for yellow), or copper (for rose), all of which are easy enough to extract and recycle as well.

The environmental impact of mining gold is a well-documented travesty, responsible for water and air pollution and displacing not just tons of earth per ounce but also the indigenous communities who have the bad fortune to live near a lucky strike.

Yet even high-end designers have found that there are literally tons of reclaimed gold available for purchase, meaning that no waste is created in the production of high-quality fine jewelry.

We profile five of these designers in the below slideshow. Click on any image to launch.

However, if you’re hankering for something a little more authentic and less mass-produced, there are plenty of genuinely vintage baubles in the marketplace. Your first stop should be to your local estate-jewelry shop so you can acquaint yourself with the different styles throughout the years, but feast your eyes on the following slideshow for a little lesson in antique jewelry.

Sometimes the best ideas strike purely by happenstance. Take the colorful “Electric Love” rings by Grain, a Seattle-area jewelry company. Co-designer James Minola whipped this up from scrap electrical wire while waiting for his partner, Chelsea Green, to finish an art class. Ms. Green’s friends admired the ring so much that they’ve added it as a permanent addition to their jewelry line.

Made to order from upcycled electrical wire from a building-materials supplier on Bainbridge Island, the hand-knotted ring comes in a rainbow of bright colors. From an email the designers sent us:

“Electric Love gives a second life to something that was headed for a landfill,” says Minola, “It is a small gesture but one that we always consider in our design work.”

Also, Grain is a member of 1% for the Planet, an association of businesses around the globe pledging to donate at least 1% of their annual sales to environmental groups. Feel-good all around.

“Electric Love” Rings, $19 at GrainDesign.com.

London Jewellery Week just wrapped up on Sunday, and to commemorate the fabulous flash of this glittering event, the Guardian published its guide to buying feel-good baubles.

Among the newspaper’s picks for the event’s best designers, many of whom were new to us:

First up, April Doubleday. She gets her inspiration from the coastline of Devon, where she is based, and FS particularly likes her glass collection(pendants from £75). Avasarah, a rather fabulous online ethical jewellery shop, has its own range too, with some excellent prices. This sweet hummingbird disc is made from 100% recycled silver, and is manually produced (no heat or chemicals involved). You can add on charms, but we think it’s nice just as it is, and for a bargain £29 too. More natural inspiration – but with a rather fabulous twist – can be found at Leblas, where this recycled silver and spearmint enamel pendant (£160) is a great combination of wearable yet distinctive. Note: the spearmint is not edible. Alas.

Over at CRED (the host for the ethical section of the show, no less), we’re in love with this gorgeous pendant by Annabel Panes. Inspired by Nepali designs, it’s handmade from 100% recycled silver by the Harigni Cooperative in Nepal (£85 for silver, also comes in gold).

Call us squirrels, but we’re suckers for pretty, shiny things — especially when they come with an ethical stamp of approval.

URTH Ethical Spearmint & Silver Pendant, £175 at Leblas.com.

All you’ll need is to scrounge up some vintage baubles from the thrift store or your grandmother’s dresser, a pair of needle-nose pliers, and some chain and jewelry wire to hold everything in place. (A mannequin to get the layers to sit right as you work wouldn’t hurt either.)

When collecting your necklaces, visualize your final product. Do you want something blingy? Seek out rhinestones. Ethnic? Then you want necklaces set with turquoise and other rough-hewn or semi-precious stones. Mixing metals? Look for bronze and rose gold chains in addition to the standard silver and gold. You can also use the same technique to create a matching bracelet, as modeled to the left.

For the full photo tutorial, click here.

If you’re the type who wants to be the first among your friends to pick up on a trend, you’ll want to scoop up one of the limited edition statement necklaces made by Gemma Redux in collaboration with Loyale.

Rachel Dooley, the designer behind Gemma Redux, tore apart an antique chandelier for the crystals and set the stones in a tangle of reclaimed gold.

There are only 10 necklaces available, and we know that someone at Cynthia Steffe has already laid claim to one of them, tweeting about it being “a little bit preppy, a little bit rock n roll” last week and the perfect complement to a crisp white shirt. Will you be the lucky one to snatch up one of the other 9?

Gemma Redux “Emily” Necklace, $398 at LoyaleClothing.com.

In a Designer Dossier profile of creative head Rosa Tous, Marie Claire magazine clued us in on these excellent benefits (June print edition):

“I think our success has come from demystifying fine jewelry,” she says. … But it’s also Tous’ concern for her employees that has earned her fans. Predominantly women in their 30s, Tous factory workers have access to an on-site nursery and children’s learning center.

What great recognition for hard work! Since so many factory employees work hard for low wages to provide for their families, we wish more companies would follow Tous’s lead and go the extra mile to support the backbone of the manufacturing process.

Looking for the perfect wear-with-anything piece of jewelry? We love the daintiness of this handmade recycled gold ring by Etsy seller BeyondTheRockz.

It features an antique bird stamp from the 19th century, embossed into a recycled 18-karat gold medallion and set in a sterling silver shank. Each one is stamped by hand using authentically antique tools to connect the wearer with the ancient art of metalworking.

Pretty beautiful stuff — and every ring is one-of-a-kind.

BeyondTheRockz Embossed Little Antique Bird Recycled Gold Ring, $160 on Etsy.com.

You all know by know that we’re fans of Brilliant Earth’s work to support sustainable and responsible jewelry making. Now the company is working to fight the horrifying consequences of the blood diamond trade in Zimbabwe — but they want your help.

Danielle from BrilliantEarth.com writes us:

Several years ago, following the global outcry against blood diamonds that led to the KP, Brilliant Earth was founded to pioneer a new way of doing business in the jewelry industry. Our idea was simple: to offer high-quality jewelry that is ethical and beneficial for all involved. As a retailer, we feel passionate about—and even responsible for—creating a more humane diamond industry.

To further our consumer educational campaigns, we have launched a petition on Change.org to give individuals an easy and effective way to add their voice to the call for Kimberley Process reform. To show our support and encourage consumer action, we will donate a dollar to communities harmed by the jewelry trade for every new signature up to $10,000!

Read the company’s Blood Diamonds Fact Sheet to bone up on recent developments in the trade of conflict gems first. Because only you can decide whether this is a cause you believe in.