The four C's of diamonds are easy to identify: Carat, Cut, Color, Clarity. The four C's of a brand? Maybe not so much. Here, we ask Pietra's jewelry designers to tell us what makes up their four C's: who is their dream celebrity? What is a common trait of all their amazing clients? What is the most prized piece from their collection, and what is unique about their craft.

Since the creation of Ecksand, Erica Bianchini, the creative mind and driving force behind the brand, has challenged the world of fine jewelry with a new take on luxury. She believes in crafting fine jewelry pieces with a modern aesthetic that combines energizing gemstones, everyday wear talismans, and oversized pieces exclusively with sustainable gold and conflict-free stones only. Her 4C's, here.

CELEBRITY

We've been lucky to have Meghan Markle wear our pieces (she's a big fan of supporting brands who stand for helping the planet), and Oprah Winfrey and Michelle Obama also have our pieces… so that's been pretty dreamy. As a Canadian I would have to say seeing Celine Dion rock some of our big diamonds would be fantastic! Or a head of state maybe? Queen Rania of Jordan has the most amazing jewels, that's for sure! What we love is seeing women leaders and women entrepreneurs wear our pieces with pride. There is also something to be said about women supporting other women!

CLIENT

We serve a variety of clients at Ecksand: women buying fine jewelry for themselves, men shopping for Bridal and increasingly it's couples shopping for Bridal together... ultimately our clients come to us because they believe in sustainability and want the best quality possible for fine jewelry. They care about where the products they buy come from and they want ethical first and foremost. We get a lot of requests from around the world, even if people never came to our original boutique in Montreal, Canada. Clients usually know about our reputation as being 100% sustainable and that's what brought them to us in the first place.

COLLECTION

My very own green emerald engagement ring! I got married to the co-founder of Ecksand two years ago and he had proposed with a very unique ring. He had the atelier custom make a ring without me knowing, which is pretty impressive given I usually am involved in every piece we produce! Another piece that really means a lot is my diamond E-shaped pendant; E stands for Ella, the name of my first daughter. In terms of collections, I have a soft spot for our Tresses collection, inspired by nautical knots. Meghan Markle's favourite piece of ours are the Tresses bar earrings - we sold out every time she wore her pair!

CRAFT

All of our Ecksand pieces are handmade in our Montreal atelier. We kept production local and in-house so we can have complete control over our supply chain and make sure we keep production as sustainable as possible. Sustainability drives everything we do - all our gold is 100% recycled - a lot of people don't realize how destructive mining activity is for the planet. By using recycled gold we're able to at least reduce mining of new metal. We really believe in doing our part for the environment while delivering the highest quality jewelry possible.