Our New Zealand Story

Our Design Process

Alice Herald’s jewels are exclusively designed in New Zealand, in her Wanaka studio.

Her design process is unique and one she has developed over 25 years.

Alice creates one of a kind designs that embody a depth of story-telling that is only achieved through considered, well researched and inspired topics.

Being a trained jeweller and able to visualise each finished piece as she designs, Alice understands the process, and crafting techniques needed to create such works of art. This shines through her jewels as she looks to explore and push the design and crafting boundaries, relishing the challenges for both herself and team.

Our craftsmanship

Alice Herald’s jewels are exclusively crafted in New Zealand.

Our crafting team has a combined wealth of knowledge of over 120 years. Needless to say, we have extensive manufacturing experience and are capable of handling the most technical and demanding of designs.

We have strict quality control processes in place, ensuring the highest of standards.

Our Gold

All 18kt yellow gold jewels are proudly crafted using 100% alluvial gold sourced from the South Island of New Zealand.

This gold is super special in our eyes. It is the most environmentally friendly form of gold mining – traceable and ethically sourced, with no chemicals used.

Unlike hard rock mining, Mother Nature has already done the heavy lifting by naturally separating the gold from rock through erosion, taking it from the mountains out to the coast via glaciers, rivers and floodwater.

It is then a matter of separating the gold particles from the black sand soils – a process achieved so simply through water and gravity (no chemicals needed).

Read about Alice’s visit to a New Zealand alluvial gold mine here and here.

All other 18kt white and rose gold is recycled Australasian gold.

Our Gold Mining Standards

New Zealand gold alluvial mining operators must comply with strict New Zealand Department of Conservation protocols to minimise any environmental impact. These protocols firmly put the responsibility on gold exploration, extraction and processing companies to minimise their environmental impact over the whole life cycle of their activities.

For example at the mine’s end of life, alluvial gold mine operators are required to restore the landscape back to an ‘as is or better’ standard – such as productive farmland, forestry or native trees.

These operators are also subject to strict New Zealand employment/ health and safety laws and regulations, supporting the well being of local communities and their families.

Our chosen New Zealand based gold refinery is a member of the Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC) and follows International best practice standards, documented with an Environment Management Plan (EMP) which has environmental sustainability in mind.

Our New Zealand Fernmark

All jewels in our international collections are proudly designed and made in New Zealand under the New Zealand FernMark Licensee programme.

The FernMark is a New Zealand trademark and symbol that represents the story of who we are and where we’re from:

“The Silver Fern is one of New Zealand’s most recognised, long-standing, and respected national symbols.

…the FernMark gives us the opportunity to represent New Zealand on the world stage and bring consumers on a journey to our shores through our New Zealand Story.”

begin your New Zealand story with Alice

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