Caipora’s founder, Zel Albuquerque, combines her love of fashion with a passionate ethical belief system. Her jewellery company, Caipora, follows these principles of being environmentally responsible and sourcing materials and products that have been ethically produced.

Zel’s background combines experience of Brazil, Italy, Spain and the UK and from this she gained her appreciation of culture, expression and heritage. Caipora brings its customers handmade jewellery from one of the countries she has travelled: Brazil.

Their designer use materials with attention to quality and detail, working closely with those who craft the pieces, to maintain the values they share with Zel.

These core beliefs in sustainability and ethical production ensure that the jewellery is a true representation of the melting pot of culture that is Brazil.

This unusual handmade jewellery has been collected under four natural elements; Fire, Earth, Water and Air. The pieces are made from seeds, recycled bone, horn and acrylic, wood and coconut shells, up-cycled paper and leather, among other natural and sustainable materials, including golden grass. This is coupled with high-quality silver, gold and brass metals.

The name ‘Caipora’ is synonymous with environmental responsibility, too: it is an entity of indigenous Tupi-Guarani mythology of Brazil, and means ‘the forest protector’.

Riverside communities in Brazil use native knowledge to source Caipora’s materials in a completely sustainable way and most of their recycled materials are regulated by bodies such as the FSC.

All of the extraction activities, for each material Caipora use, are monitored by local environmental agencies and many of their suppliers are known as “eco-friendly” merchants.

Caipora has been seen in Vogue, the Telegraph and Instyle among others.

For more details please visit http://caipora.co.uk/.