We have reached a point in industrial society where desirable materials are extracted in an unbalanced and harmful way, to fuel corporate profits, rather than for the intrinsic beauty or spiritual value of the material. Many morbid symptoms are arising with deep impacts on community and land. Although this is not the case with all gemstone and metal mining, it's important to investigate the industrialised side of this system which is generating a huge volume of the global supply. Are materials extracted in this abusive way the ones we want to be using in our craft?