About Our Company

"Reflective Images, Inc. is a profitable, creative and self-sustaining jewelry company that produces beautiful designs of consistently high quality in a timely fashion. We strive to be environmentally responsible. People employed here are invested in the company's success. They are valued for their contributions and for who they are. The business' profitability supports each employee's humanity, wholeness and desire to lead meaningful lives."

Business Ethos

Reflective Images is a practical experiment in running a circle based business.

"A circle based business is rooted in relationships that are nurtured by fair and equitable exchange. Every person inside and outside of the business viewed as equal in their humanity."

This paradigm becomes the basis for testing business decisions, ranging from how personnel are compensated to which suppliers are worked with. The goal is to create a life giving well of profit through a circle of mutually beneficial relationships that support our economy, ecology and community. Our business philosophy is behind our strong support for fair trade practices.

The concept was developed by the owners of the company, Marc Choyt and Helen Chantler. At present, Marc is writing a book entitled, The Circle Manifesto, which explains in detail the challenges and rewards of implementing circle based business practices.

History and Market

Reflective Images was founded in 1995 by Helen Chantler and Marc Choyt. Before founding the company, neither had any business experience. Marc worked as a high school teacher and Helen worked at a local jewelry company doing production work.

In addition to their web and catalog business, the company sells to a hundred and fifty galleries and jewelry stores around the country. They also regularly have designs in national mail order catalogs and sell in the premiums and incentive market. The company has a gallery and workshop at 912 Baca Street in Santa Fe, NM.

Employment Practices

Reflective Images has ten employees. Employees receive three weeks paid vacation, paid sick leave and several paid holidays. The company covers 50% of health insurance. The company gives year end bonuses - typically over 5% of yearly wages. Employees, after a year, get 6% of salary given to their own retirement account. No employee match is required. Employees also receive a "wellness" benefit, where the company matches up to $75 dollars a month that employees can use for anything from working out at the gym, to yoga, to meditation retreats. The entry wage is $13 an hour. All employees work on flex-time, which allows them to deal with family matters as they come up. Five of employees have bought houses in Santa Fe while working for the company.

The shop is racially diverse. Four countries of origin are represented: Chili, Guatemala, England the US. The owners of the company, who have both traveled extensively around the world, view different races and cultural background as a great strength in their organization.

Environmental Commitment

Reflective Images has state of the art jewelry making equipment and ventilation. They recycle as much as they can in-house and use chemicals that are not damaging to the environment whenever possible. All packing material is either from shredded junk mail or it's recycled from what is received from our suppliers. The gold their purchase for in house fabrication is entirely recycled. They pay extra for electricity which comes from wind and solar sources. Their main international supplier in Indonesia works on a fair trade basis. Our diamond supplier has given us a written assurance that the diamonds are conflict free.

Recent Awards and Recognition

• In 2008, Reflective Images was again honored with the Excellence in Business Award offered by the City of Santa Fe and Chamber of Commerce for its business practices, contribution to the local community and the jewelry sector as a whole.

• 1995, 1996: Superior Supplier, OC Tanner Corp.* OC Tanner is the leading Premium and Recognition company in the world. They have over 300 vendors and name just three as superior suppliers. Reflective Images is OC Tanner's only supplier that has less than twenty employees.

• 1996: Finalist For Outstanding Community Business.* The Mayor and City Counsel of Santa Fe recognized Reflective Images in June, 1996 as one of Santa Fe's top five businesses, based on charitable contributions, job creation, diversity in the work place, wages, and benefit package.