A short time after I interviewed and photographed Pippa Small, the magazine that commissioned me to do the report went out of print. What follows has never been published before. In any case, the original article was supposed to limit itself to Pippa’s jewelry business (and those of four other jewelers), but the complete interview is so much more interesting that I am going to share it with you here.
Pippa Small
Her shop in Notting Hill Gate, London definitely reflects her character: stylish, multicultural and full of pleasant surprises. She welcomes me with a big smile and makes it immediately clear that “this place is an excuse to awaken my clients opinion to what is really important to me”. What is she talking about? Tribal people’s rights. Pippa has been named ambassador for Survival, the organization that has fought to protect tribal populations since 1969.
But let’s take things in order.
Pippa grew up with an extended family in a big isolated house in the English countryside: “That environment was magic – the jeweler says with shining eyes – there were ducks, rabbits and lots of animals. Every day I was off on new adventures with the other kids in total independence, our imaginations were all we needed to come up with amazing stories. Then my father died and my mother took us traveling: Tanzania, Morocco, Turkey… I was totally fascinated by the inspirational power of other cultures and I started collecting beads, seeds, shells, even bottle caps or buttons. Those little objects helped me to keep the connection with certain places or people alive and I started making my own talismans. Later on I finished school in Switzerland where I met people from the Philippines, South America and all over the world. They were curious about my jewelry and asked me to make some for them”.
Pippa smiles at me caressing her bracelet, you can tell that every single bead has a story and a meaning. But I don’t ask, I am too curious to discover what happened next. My lovely interlocutor reveals to me that she was so attracted to understanding why the world is the way it is that she moved to London and did a master’s in medical anthropology: “After university I started working for an NGO in Borneo, a small group of local women who decided that things needed to change. They literally risked their lives to organize their community and defend against exploitation by big multinationals. Real social activists. Then I went to Sarawak (Malaysia) to develop a project on the mental health of indigenous peoples troubled by difficult contact with western culture. Among other things, I helped create gardens of medicinal plants so that the community could keep the tradition alive and pass the knowledge on to the youngsters”.
Pippa tells me how her travels from one tribe to another allowed her to discover that indigenous communities are severely endangered by environmental issues, alcoholism and a high suicide rate. She felt she wanted to help and her jewelry provided a way to support her dreams: “There were a couple of shops in London that wanted to sell my jewelry after seeing it on people. I started a small production in between my trips and pretty soon I was picked up by an agent that helped me find new clients, build collections, meet the buyers and make my business grow. That was good because I could invest in my main activity, at the same time it was kind of odd. For instance: I spent a summer in Thailand working for a group of political refugees, a tribe of head hunters from Nagaland (northeast India) who had survived torture and I really wanted to stay with them. But I had to go to Paris fashion week. I felt so weird suddenly being there talking about which colors were in for the season. And it was comic witnessing those women in a panic because they didn’t have their earrings ready. Strange world we are living in”.
I ask if I can see her creations and she opens up big drawers for me full of distinguished jewelry. There is, indeed, a fairy allure in those slightly tribal shapes. “Nothing is perfect and clean, I follow the shape of stones and, of course, my intuition”.
“Is it true that you have a number of celebrities among your clients?”, I ask.
“Yes”, she answers as if she couldn’t care less, “Julia Roberts, Cameron Diaz, Mick Jagger… bah, I don’t remember them all. Do you want to know about Botswana?”
Sure I do.
“I went to Botswana to work with the bushmen (actually bushwomen) and we did a collection of local crafts. In order to make it more marketable, I altered their style a bit and felt awkward about it. But for them the alternative was becoming more and more miserable and I was determined to help them to be independent using their local resources and talent. The biggest obstacle was that they didn’t have any concept of accumulating wealth. They were used to living totally in the present without putting away money for school or medical needs. But western civilization was literally overwhelming their traditional lifestyle and I guided them into something that would have possibly helped them sustain themselves: charging for their time, respecting deadlines and so on. I worked with that community for two years, I even organized exhibitions of their crafts in London showing maps, movies, pictures, stories and art. Then it was time to move on to a new project”.
“Where did you go?”
“I started a clay project with a tribe of Pygmies. They were very poor, had no land rights and were the target of a lot of racism. A tragic story. At the time I was working for Gucci as a consultant and I could make enough money to finance my activities with the Pygmies, the NGO that I was helping didn’t have money. Then I moved to Panama where Cuban Indians are pretty much in control. Their culture is very intact. They keep their traditional dress, they cure themselves with traditional healers and don’t allow missionaries, schools or hospitals. In other words they avoid being traumatized by changes. At the same time they live in poverty”.
I am curious to know how she can make herself welcome in a community that is so self protective. Pippa laughs at my naivety and reassures me that good intentions always find a way to be expressed. “Cuban Indians”, she goes on, “have a lot of gold but do not allow big mines because it belongs to mother earth. They only look for it in the river. I started buying that gold to produce a collection knowing that with my money they could build a school the way they wanted with local teachers and not aliens unsettling their traditions”.
“Do you use that gold for all your jewels?”, I ask.
“No, there is an ethical gold mine in Bolivia and I buy from them too. I know that 15% of my money is going to the local community to support schools and that’s a really good thing. Usually a gold mine is hugely polluting with cyanide and mercury. Those chemicals get into the soil and water with devastating consequences. For a single wedding ring two tons of toxic waste are produced. Luckily people are starting to be more aware of the matter and right now there is a huge demand for clean gold. Another ethical mine is in Colombia, and in Tanzania there is the equivalent for diamonds. When I am here in my shop in Notting Hill, I always make sure that my clients get the message. I start chatting with them; word of mouth is such a great way to spread awareness! Now they buy my jewelry in other countries too (for instance Barneys in New York and Tokyo or Gago in Aix-en-Provence). The clients find information on the ethical aspects of my business and some of them are inspired to take action in their own way”.
The time for the interview is ending and I also feel inspired to take action in my very own way: “Can I follow you and photograph the development of one of your projects?”
“Sure”, she smiles, “but I warn you: you need some training”.
I am ready.
Now let’s see if any magazine is willing to commission me to do this assignment. So far they have been too concerned that talking about ethical jewelry might cast a shadow on the advertisers whose jewelry is produced in a not-so-ethical way. But things can change…
