This the story of Patsy Van Damme, artisan, goldsmith and owner of EbbengouD, a woman passionate about craft goldsmithing who combined it with the use of responsible materials.
EbbenGouD refers to ebony, one of the most precious woods, and gold, the precious metal. And loosely translated it means, 'we have gold'.
Today Patsy is an entrepreneur of the sustainable economy in Gent and tells us the road she had to follow before she got to where she is today.
A golden woman
After her secondary education at Sint-Lucas in Ghent, Patsy completed her ambition by studying jewelry design Sint-Lucas college in Antwerp.
After a few wanderings, she established her own studio in Ghent 5 years ago, the city she fell in love with as a young student.
Patsy's studio, in the heart of Ghent, is one of the businesses that contribute to a local and sustainable economy.
Noble and responsible
From the very beginning, Patsy was looking for metals and gemstones that were produced or mined in a responsible manner, with respect for people and nature.
At EbbenGouD, forging is done with metal from two origins.
Fairmined metals on the one hand, which are extracted from small-scale mines where the employees work in a safe and responsible manner and are correctly remunerated for their work.
On the other hand, metals with the 'Responsible Refined' certificate are chosen.
This gold is recovered by recycling scrap gold from old jewellery, watches and electronics. Gold can always be refined back to its pure form.
Patsy advises all her customers to have old gold refined if possible.
In this way, it remains in circulation and forms part of a circular process.
In addition to sustainable metals, EbbenGouD has also resolutely opted for cultured diamonds to process in jewelry.
These diamonds are formed under extremely high pressure in labs, are 100% equivalent to mined diamonds, are less harmful to the environment and last but not least affordable.
Graceful Simplicity
The jewelry from EbbenGouD is characteristic because of their sleek and simple shapes. Whether or not combined with a diamond, a gemstone or a pearl.
When customers want to gift a jewel, it is sometimes difficult to make the right choice. EbbenGouD has developed the concept 'from noble parts to arts' for this purpose.
According to their own budget, customers can give as a gift an amount of 24 carat gold grenailles, possibly combined with a diamond, gemstone or pearl.
The lucky recipient visits EbbenGouD with the precious particles to design his or her personal jewel together with Patsy.
“When designing jewelry for 'from noble parts to arts', a bond develops between the recipient and myself. This is always an exciting and inspiring process, which ends with a satisfied customer.
It often happens that my customers hug and kiss me when they come to pick up their jewel, sporadically there is a postcard in the bus to thank me and very occasionally they bring me flowers afterwards.”
EbbenGouD uses responsible materials to design and make contemporary and artisan jewelry.
Visit the studio or visit the website.
A: Nieuwpoort 1, 9000 Gent
T : +32 472 83 21 89
W: www.ebbengoud.be
Dalila Ferrari
Born in Brazil, Dalila has Italian origins and lived most of her life in Italy before moving to Ghent as an ESC international volunteer last October.
