Our Values
Our business doesn’t begin and end with the swipe of your credit card. Our mission is to amplify and celebrate beauty, strength, and connection of all people, not just people within our four walls and not just those who spend money with us.
We believe in being good humans by genuinely caring about and contributing to the well-being of ourselves, our co-workers, our customers, and our community.
OUR PLANET
We're anti-fast fashion. We love plants, forests, and beaches. We believe our business practices should reflect this.
• We offer free repairs. We'd rather make you one pair of earrings you'll love and feel great in for years than 10 pairs you'll only kinda like. Some limitations apply. 1
• We keep our land filled with more beauty with Recast™, the Betsy & Iya Buy-back program.
• We've built an ethical & sustainable supply chain. We incorporate recycled metal in our work as much as possible and recycle 100% of our scrap. We are only using lab-grown white diamonds and ethically sourced salt & pepper and black earth diamonds in our fine jewelry.
We love plants, forests, and beaches. We believe our business practices should reflect this.
Our Products
We're pro-local goods. We sell Beautiful things made by people who care®, not products made oceans apart from their designers. They're made here, because here is special wherever it is.
• It starts with us. Every piece of Betsy & Iya jewelry is designed and made in our Portland studio. 2
• High standards for our friends. Other products we carry are made by their designers or in close proximity to them. Many of our lines include a charitable component.
• We share our platform and prioritize doing business with BIPOC, women, and LGBTQIA artists and designers.
We provide free repairs because we'd rather sell you one pair of earrings you'll love for years than 10 pairs you'll kinda like. 1
OUR COMMUNITY
We believe a rising tide lifts all boats. From our earliest days when it was just Betsy in a tiny studio, we’ve given back.
• Since 2008, we've donated $47,356 cash + over $42k in jewelry and gift certificates to hundreds of organizations, causes, schools, individuals, and nonprofits devoted to social equity. And we're just getting started.
• We write and publish Brilliant Cuts™, profiles of community members who inspire us to hang in and ride out the rocky road that leads us to our dreams, or sometimes a dream we never knew we had.
• We buy locally and use Amazon only as a last resort. We refuse to be part of a race to the bottom. We value people above profits and expect the same from our vendors, suppliers, and partners.
We aim to go beyond not only in our work, but within and outside of our community.
Community Love
Some of the organizations we love and support:
ACLU
American Cancer Society
American Heart Association
Asian Americans Advancing Justice
Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble
Brown Hope
Black Resilience Fund
Business for a Better Portland
BYP100 Education Fund
The Center for Popular Democracy
Children's Cancer Association
Color of Change
The Conscious Kid
Covid Act Now
Esperanza Spalding's BIPOC Artist Sanctuary
Health Care for All Oregon
Hollywood Theatre
Ingleside Elementary School
Fair Count
Fair Fight
Foot Soldiers Park
Fractured Atlas
Friendly House
Friends of Peninsula Park
Friends of the Children
Friends of the Columbia Gorge
Girls, Inc.
Interact Center for the Visual and Performing Arts
Journeys for the Soul
The Marsha P. Johnson Institute
Mercy Corps
McRae Gaines Learning Center
Mimi's Fresh Tees
New Avenues for Youth
Northwest Immigrant Rights Project
One Tail at a Time
OPB
Oregon Food Bank
Raphael House of Portland
Restoring Justice
River West Church
Sogorea Te' Land Trust
Southern Poverty Law Center
Street Dog Hero
Street Roots
Street Yoga
Trans Empowerment Project
Union Gospel Mission
Veteran's Fund
Wikimedia Foundation
1. Due to the high value and expert skill involved, fine jewelry does not qualify for free repairs beyond complimentary cleanings and inspections. We do not work on jewelry we did not originally manufacture and other jewelry brands we sell may charge for repair service. We reserve the right to limit free repairs on a case by case basis to prevent abuse of this service.
2. We've built a network of US-based, values-aligned contractors who perform certain processes of jewelry manufacturing for certain pieces. The amount we lean on this network fluctuates, especially at times of high demand. We aim to do as much production in-house as possible and no matter what is done offsite, our internal team's hands touch every single piece of our jewelry in some way.