As a consumer, it can get awfully confusing when shopping for jewelry online. We have to take a company at its word when it comes to business practices and, when marketing jargon is used, it can get even more confusing.

The Canadian jewelry industry is no exception! There are dozens of companies, large and small, selling their jewelry online. It is important that you truly understand what you are buying and from whom so that you can make an informed decision of where to spend your money. 

Is "Canadian made" the same as "Canadian owned" or "Canadian designed"? Where does Carolily fall in that spectrum?

Let's chat about it!

Differences Among Jewelry Companies

Not all Canadian jewelry companies operate the same way, despite using similar jargon. The terms "Canadian made", "Canadian designed" and "Canadian owned" all mean very different things and there is nothing that dictates how these phrases are used.

In the food industry, for example, when a food contains both domestic and imported ingredients, the label would state "Made in Canada from domestic and imported ingredients". There's no such label for jewelry. A company could say that their jewelry is "Canadian made" even if the vast majority of a piece is made overseas and then simply assembled in Canada.

There are two primary ways that jewelry companies most often operate:

1. A "Canadian owned" company means that the company is owned and incorporated in Canada. The jewelry is typically mass produced elsewhere and then imported by the Canadian company.
   
   
2. A company whose jewelry is "Canadian designed" will usually have an in-house artist come up with the jewelry design and then it is outsourced to an overseas company for production in an effort to reduce costs. Most of the big Canadian jewelry companies follow this model.

As you can see, it can get a little murky depending on how transparent a company is with sharing their production process. Jewelry may be designed and purchased elsewhere, despite the fact a company markets themselves as Canadian. 

Truly Handcrafted Canadian Made Jewelry

We like to keep things simple. We are a Canadian owned and operated company that designs AND handcrafts every piece of jewelry IN Canada.

We order raw materials from our North American wholesale suppliers who have connections all over the world. Our materials arrive as spools of chains, boxes of pearls and bags of charms. Nothing arrives pre-assembled.

From there, we get to work hardwiring every single pearl, gemstone and bead you see in our jewelry, and hand cutting every piece of chain. Our jewelry production team handcrafts each and every piece of Carolily jewelry from our studio in West Kelowna, with two notable exceptions. Our hoop earrings are handmade in Toronto and any bespoke ring is handcrafted by our metalsmith in Calgary.

Proudly Handcrafting Jewelry Since 2015

We love being able to share our business practices with you. We love discussing how we handcraft our jewelry. We love employing and empowering women across Canada. We love that our business model is based on making women feel beautiful and that we can do that while keeping 100% of our business operations in Canada.

If you have any questions about our business practices or the jewelry industry in general, please feel free to email us at hello@carolily.com..