Short answer - yes! We pride ourselves on exceeding industry standards. DUSK's body jewelry is made either of platinum, valued for its inertness, and solid gold between 14 and 18 karat, nickel- and cadmium-free, and alloyed for bio-compatibility. This also means our white gold is alloyed with palladium. Other notable facets is that our jewelry is thoroughly quality controlled for use. Before the jewelry leaves us, all wearable surfaces are given a smooth, mirror finish. All settings are free of adhesives, and all threading is internal. We greatly anticipate the Body Jewelry Verification program as set up by the APP as well, and intend to receive verification as soon as this process is released for gold and platinum. You can see the APP's guide for initial piercings here and the Body Jewelry Verification program here to learn more.

We do a great deal of CAD work to create designs. Our team loves innovating concepts we think will be loved in studios. We are constantly designing and experimenting, as well as working to improve our existing designs and practices. Keeping in touch with the body jewelry and overall fashion industry means it is impossible not to have some overlap with several other jewelry manufacturers across the jewelry and piercing industries. We do not, however, outright take designs of competitors, nor is any piece directly “based on” something another body jewelry company offers. We think it's important to note that, as is standard for countless in the jewelry industry, there are components to some of our pieces that have been manufactured elsewhere. Please note, this does not mean there is "overseas" work or corners cut to lower the cost of labor; we only work with those who share our values and ethics, and only outsource when some aspect cannot be made in our current workshop. We are continuously evolving and growing so that we can offer as much directly from our workshop as we can.

DUSK is a wholesale fine body jewelry manufacturer, and our sister project MIDNIGHT Gold Co. manufacturers and retails other fine jewelry such as finger rings, pendants, and necklaces. We value transparency and the ethical responsibility of working with nonrenewable resources – socially, environmentally, and economically. Quality is a major point for all of us using and wearing jewelry, especially inside of our bodies. We are uncompromising in our belief that this quality should not come at the detriment of health, equality, economies, or environments at any stage of the process and supply chain. Therefore our mission is to responsibly innovate and craft quality fine jewelry with accountability and love. DUSK's jewelry selection is comprised of our catalog of offerings as well as our custom work. We offer original designs, design collaboration and CAD services, and our extensive history in body piercing and jewelry - all to provide exquisite pieces every time. As an additional offering, we have a refining program that allows studios and individuals to receive credits or direct monetary returns for sending us "scrap" gold and platinum material. We believe we are responsible for how we handle nonrenewable resources and thus encourage refining of materials whenever possible to lower the global impact.

Our jewelry is designed, crafted, and/or polished at our location in Rochester, NH. A full description of our amazing staff will be added to our site soon! Stray (he/him): Owner and jeweler. Lisha (she/her): Head jeweler. Angie (she/her): Senior jeweler. Stevie (she/her): Quality control and stock manager Rhett (they/them, he/him): HR & admin assistant, jewelry & sales head

Absolutely! We would be happy to schedule you a tour. Feel free to reach out to discuss how we can help accommodate you.

All pieces made by DUSK come with a guarantee of freedom from manufacturer's defects for life. We repair pieces when possible rather than replace. All worn items must be returned free from matter/buildup and sterilized and include a filled out repair/return form (found in our menu). All returns, repairs, and exchanges are subject to DUSK discretion.

Currently, not all of our items are listed on our webstore as we improve the site. We are always working to update and improve our web experience, just like we are doing with our jewelry! In the meantime, you are welcome to peruse our jewelry catalog or Instagram to see pieces that may not be currently listed. Ordering these items just requires you email us directly instead of using our site. If it is a highly custom piece or inquiry, we suggest submitting a custom order form found on our website menu. For items that are more simple requests - such as slightly altered versions of a piece, a specific gem or bead pattern on an existing concept, or pieces you know we've made but aren't yet on our site - we suggest you email us directly at duskbodyjewelry@gmail.com for that portion or all of your order.

While made-to-order items are the bulk of our site and orders, we often do have a selection of items we can ship next day in our backstock. We are working to add these to our site for easy purchase. In the meantime, you can schedule a Backstock Call to view these items virtually with a DUSK representative, or you can email us at duskbodyjewelry@gmail.com to get a spreadsheet of items available.

Our wait times tend to vary based on how big an order is and how many other orders are in our queue. For the best estimate on where your order is, please contact directly at duskbodyjewelry@gmail.com. Rest assured, if there are significant delays in the process, we will let you know. Once your order is ready to ship, you will receive a tracking number in your email to follow up with your postal service.

Our Giving We are a very small business, and as such, we are honored to have the privilege to still outside projects, including local animal shelters and raising/donating money for the National Center of Transgender Equality (NCTE). We greatly look forward to growing and having more opportunities like this in our future! Our Transparency We plan to both continue to update our practices, website, and Patreon with more information about material sustainability, what improvements we aim to make, where we have room for improvement still, where the industry has room for improvement, and other education. Fair Labor & Wages We are very small business selling wholesale with a small profit margin, so we pride ourselves in how we nonetheless won't compromise on offering our employees thriving wages and benefits. We do not outsource any of our process for the purpose of lowering cost.

Working with nonrenewable resources obtained from global labor means accepting responsibility regarding social, environmental, and economical factors. We therefore focus on ethical and sustainable practices in all facets possible for us, including making purchases from those whose values and practices align with our own. Further, we do not tolerate hate or discrimination on the basis of national origin, race, ethnicity, disability, sex, gender, sexual orientation, age, familial status or structure, religion, or background. We firmly support gender equality, anti-racist efforts, the LGBTQ+ community, and many other diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice efforts. Our team is largely compromised of individuals part of marginalized communities, and we take these things seriously. We choose not to work with vendors, dealers, or retailers who do not share our values. This also means we will stop selling to or purchasing from some individuals and businesses should our values not align.

This is a very long discussion for which there is a wild amount of nuance. We may even make a dedicated video on the topic, which would be made available on our Patreon. The shortest answer we can give - we weigh all the issues and make our best educated decision on what stones to purchase. Both natural and lab created stones have their own complications. But most notable are the issues of natural stones, like most of the gems we use. Likely the most known for their humanitarian issues is diamond mining; the conditions in which many diamonds have been mined have resulted in the terms like “blood diamonds”, “red diamonds”, and “conflict diamonds”. Diamonds mined in poor conditions, often illegally, or stolen and sold to finance major conflicts and terrorism. In these situations, people are often forced to mine and dig under threat of violence. In response, the Kimberly process was born (source) (source) (source). All genuine diamonds we use are certified under the Kimberly Process (KP) or are reclaimed/reused/upcycled in an attempt to lower the impact our use has. It is important to note that the Kimberly Process is not the end-all, and due to the issues with the industry, we do not use the term conflict-free (source) (source). Aside from diamonds, there is currently no standard accepted for any colored gemstones, such as Fairtrade or even the KP (source). To best source the quantity of stones we do, we carry gems from dealers with whom we have developed close relationships.We work with dealers who are certified by the American Gem Trade Association (AGTA) and those who abide by the ethics of the Gemology Institute of America (GIA). Further, we also value lessening the global impact of mining entirely. We source several cultured or lab-grown gems in our base designs as well. These stones are chemically and structurally the same as those found naturally from the Earth. It is important to note these also can have indirect impacts (source) - so this isn’t the perfect answer, but a piece of the puzzle. Re-using gems is another way to lessen the impact our jewelry can have; for this reason, we very happily will take gems you source if we can ensure we won’t damage it in the process of setting or resetting.

We use solid gold for both our threads and pins. We know that a lot of piercers feel that gold pins can be weak or loose, but there are several reasons we do this and ways we work to improve the softness of gold pins. Why do your gold pins stand out? They are made of specifically white gold, alloyed in such a way to be less soft than yellow gold. We work-harden them to ensure their sturdiness. We pre-bend them for you, so you have to mess with less, and so we can ensure there aren't weak spots. Why not steel pins? Including steel pins requires a specific process - and it also means that it is virtually impossible to fix a lot of potential damage should a piece need repairing. You can read more about our repair vs. replace standard further in our FAQ.

We strive to repair any item found to be defective so that less waste of gold or other nonrenewable resources is created. We will even repair jewelry from other companies when we are able! We would rather confidently say we stand by the piece we gave you forever, and so will repair that piece if needed.

Absolutely. We are happy to use any jewelry to do anything from repairs, to resetting stones, to making entirely new pieces with existing stones and/or materials. We will even work with jewelry from other body jewelry manufacturers! Important to note - we cannot work with every piece of jewelry. There are some limits to our current capabilities. For example, we currently don't work with materials aside from gold and platinum. Sometimes our sister company MIDNIGHT Gold Co. will work with certain other materials, such as silver, in some contexts.

None of our platinum or gold alloys contain nickel. Our white gold is alloyed specifically with palladium to provide its white tone.