The Artisana Collection
The Artisana Collection represents work from multiple artists in the famous Taxco region of Mexico, best known for its silver jewelry. The artisans continue to produce traditional jewelry much like their ancestors. The groups who produce jewelry in this collection formed cooperatives to pool together their talent and resources – the result has been a positive impact for the individual artisans and a bigger impact on the community.
Union Progresista Artesanal (UPA)
One cooperative known as The Union Progresista Artesanal (UPA) was formed in 1986 and is located in Taxco el Viejo. The cooperative is made up of 26 jewelry makers working collectively to sell a beautiful collection of jewelry. They use a wide range of beautiful materials ranging from abalone, mother of pearl, sterling silver, Taxco silver, and much more.
UPA has achieved stable income for many members of its community through initiatives that include support of local schools and programming geared towards the youth. Artisans often work out of their homes and are paid fair wages. Their Fair Trade jewelry is not only beautiful, but each purchase helps to transform lives.
Global Crafts – India
India has always been renowned for its rich silk fabrics, woodcarvings and carpets. However, many of these products are produced in conditions of abject poverty for the craftsmen, exploited by large producers and moneylenders. Asha Handicrafts is a not-for-profit making body, based in Mumbai, India, working to promote Fair Trade and Fair Trade practices. As a member organisation of the World Fair Trade Organization, Asha Handicrafts ensures that the benefits of handicraft production reach the craftspeople themselves.
Beaurer Creations
This artisan group is located in the impoverished city of New Delhi. They are making a huge impact by employing workers at fair wages and offering safe, clean working conditions. They pay above the government issued minimum wage. Workers enjoy tea breaks each day and weekly prayer, as per tradition.
Beaurer produces a wide array of products using new and upcycled materials. Their specialty is home goods and handbags. Their workers are trained in macramé, handbag, and accessory crafts work. Examples of upcycled materials that you might find in their products include firehose, tire, and leather label patches from jeans. By purchasing a Beaurer product, you will be helping some of India's poorest people, and its environment.
Brass Images
Brass Images was established in 1988 in the coastal town of Plettenberg Bay, South Africa, about a 4 hour drive out of Cape Town. The long lasting success of the project is due to the fact that the group develops new designs on a regular basis and pays great attention to detail and quality. Brass Images employs 15 people from the local community to help create high quality fashion jewelry. As demand grows, the organization hires and trains more artisans, providing sustainable income in an area in need of employment.
Solid brass and copper are the base materials of the product. By applying extreme heat, the artisans create the interesting patterns and effects on the jewelry. No dyes are used. Each item is entirely handmade and a one-of-a-kind piece of art.
Calypso Glass
Calypso Chile is a family owned business that operates from the family home. Marcela Cofre and her husband supported their family by making women's shoes until 1994 when the market for shoes dropped dramatically as cheaper imports flooded the market.
After dabbling in various types of crafts, Marcela found a particular talent for glass making, building a sustainable business to support her family as well as the families of others who she has trained to help make glass products, specializing in fashion jewelry. As a member of the WFTO, Marcela operates the business under the auspices of fair trade, ensuring that all of the artisans and craftspeople are paid a fair price for their work.
Caribbean Craft
Founded in 1990 by a multinational group of young entrepreneurs, Caribbean Craft promotes employment in Haiti by training unskilled craftspeople, and by assisting the independent artisans through the introduction of new designs and new market outlets for painted Haitian metal art.
Caribbean Craft's specialty is the brightly colored, artistically hand-painted Haitian metal art wall hangings. These hand-painted Haitian metal art pieces are truly works of art. Wall art designs include painted metal geckos, painted metal dragonflies and painted metal frogs.
Creative Alternatives
Creative Alternatives works with marginalized producers in rural and urban areas of Kenya. The producers take pride in the product ideas they are able to develop and market through Creative Alternatives. The producers are self employed men and women, largely young and middle aged, who have failed to get formal employment. They have thus had to seek employment in the jua kali (which translates into "hot sun" in the Swahili language) sector. They work in groups, small family owned businesses or as individuals.
Croix Des Bouquets
When you visit Croix des Bouquets, the area of town known for Haitian metal art in the capital of Port-Au-Prince, you are met with a cacophony of tink, tink, tink as ball peen hammers strike sheets of steel. The sheets are cut from steel drums colored by oil and other liquids the drums at one time held. The process of turning sheets of metal into beautiful wall art is all done by hand, from cutting holes that become edges of trees and leaves, to accenting each lizard with a texture of scales, to painting or lacquering the final design. The artists are proud of their work, signing the pieces on the back side, leaving a raised, reversed signature on the front.
Encantada Pottery
There's no sign to find the small family-owned ceramic workshop in the state of Guanajuato. Behind the large wooden gate, women artisans are hand painting unfired ceramics while men work the kilns, as they have since the late 70's. Each piece has personality from the dots and swirls to the handpainted logo on the bottom. And each is lead free, microwave and dishwasher safe.
Esther Kariuki
Esther Kariuki is an independent artisan who, in her area of Kenya, near Kitui, has organized and trained women in her village to use the dried fiber of the banana plant, which would normally be discarded. The banana fiber is first dried, and then a light varnish applied. Once this process is complete, craftspeople cut the fiber into thin strips to make several different items, including boxes, Bao Bab trees and mobiles. The varnish on the banana fiber with its many tones of brown resembles textured tortoise shell. Esther ensures the craftspeople are paid a fair wage for their goods, which has enabled many in her small village to earn a sustainable wage.
Gitzell Africa
Gitzell Africa's artisans work across Kenya and Ghana to weave beautiful, traditional baskets in a wide variety of designs and colors. Many of these artisans live in low-income areas and rely on selling their crafts — or taking daily temporary labor for minimum wage — to make ends meet.
In Kenya, weavers come from many parts of the country. Most are from the Eastern region, where the dry climate is ideal for growing sisal, their primary material and main source of income. In Central Kenya, artisans typically have small plots of land where they practice subsistence farming, supplementing their income by weaving products from banana leaf.
Gitzell Imports has played a vital role in connecting these talented artisans to larger markets, helping to enhance their livelihoods and bring their extraordinary craft to the world.
Global Groove Life
Global Groove Life (GGL) is a Fair Trade company born from a deep commitment to global lifestyle. GGL designs, develops, produces, and sources fairly traded lifestyle products with a pledge to the sustainability of production and the cultural heritage of artisan co-ops in Thailand and Nepal.
Inspired by the people, landscapes, colors, flavors, and very scents of the places they call home, GGL creates stimulating products that are symbolic of our shared world. Their business practices are rooted in a drive to unite global communities — spanning every culture and geographic boundary — through co-creation, education, and values grounded in human rights and dignity.
GGL encourages the journey, because the knowledge, acceptance, and understanding of different ways, people, and ideas is the very colorful road to a more respectful, safer, and kinder world.
Jedando
Working with more than 100 individual carvers in Machakos, Kenya, Jedando Modern Handicrafts markets African handicrafts primarily made of wood and bone to customers worldwide. Carving is a deeply rooted tradition in Kenya, with children learning the craft from their parents, passing down skills through generations.
Carved entirely by hand using only rudimentary tools, beautiful olive wood bowls, salad serving sets, and animal-shaped napkin rings take shape from pieces of olive wood, mahogany, and mpingo — known as "African Ebony." An integral part of Jedando's mission is educating craftspeople on the importance of reforestation, ensuring that these materials — and the sustainable income they provide — remain available for generations to come.
Beyond the carvers themselves, other artisans contribute to the finished products by painting napkin rings and crafting handles for salad serving sets from discarded animal bone. The bone is often "batiked" — a process in which wax is applied to the white bone before it is dipped in a dark brown or black dye, creating striking patterns inspired by African mud cloth designs.
Lucia's Imports
Lucia's Imports LLC partners with Guatemalan families, artisan groups, and cooperatives to maintain a wholesale market for their quality accessories and handicrafts. A proud member of the Fair Trade Federation, Lucia's Imports is dedicated to sharing the beauty of Guatemala's art and culture while making a meaningful difference in the lives of Mayan artisans — one purchase at a time.
Working side by side with artisans, Lucia's designs products that are rich in tradition and sustainable fashion. Their purses, coin bags, and accessories are crafted from recycled Mayan textiles, while their hand-beaded jewelry is made by artisan groups on the shores of Lake Atitlán — blending traditional weaving skills with modern design.
Nobunto
NOBUNTO is a South African Fair Trade company based in the small village of Napier, about 180 km east of Cape Town. They create high quality hand-painted candles, ceramics, and handcrafted greeting cards with meticulous attention to detail, drawing primarily from African-inspired designs.
In a region where unemployment reaches approximately 50%, NOBUNTO's mission goes beyond craft — it is a commitment to alleviating poverty while remaining socially, ethically, and sustainably responsible. The company provides employment to mostly women from the disadvantaged local community, guaranteeing a stable income for over 18 families.
The name NOBUNTO comes from the Sotho language, meaning "For the people" — a fitting reflection of everything this remarkable organization stands for.
SMOLArt
Our soapstone is carved by the artists of SMOLArt, a group of artisans who live in the rural village of Tabaka, Kenya — the heart of soapstone crafts. The name is a shortened version of Small, Medium, and Large Artists, referring to the range of soapstone products they create, not the stature of the makers themselves.
Established in 1990 and a proud member of the World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO), SMOLArt ensures that every artisan is paid a fair price for their work. The organization also actively supports community development, contributing to projects that improve living conditions, education, and health for its members and the village at large.
Soapstone is mined from great pits surrounding Kiisi, Kenya, and delivered to carvers who shape sculptures from the natural stone. Its color ranges beautifully from cream, pink, and yellow to brown, black, and rich marbled combinations. Once carved, craftspeople smooth the stone with water-dipped sandpaper, then either polish it to a high gloss or paint it with vibrant African motifs accented by etched details.
Every soapstone product is completely handmade using simple household tools — screwdrivers, hand drills, and switchblades — while "pangas," sword-like tools traditionally used for cutting vegetation, are used to cleave the stone directly in the mines.
Starfish Project
The Starfish Project rescues exploited women and girls in Asia, helping them establish independence and build meaningful careers. Through its Holistic Care Programs, Starfish Project provides vocational training, healthcare, shelter, counseling, and education grants for women and their children.
To date, Starfish Project has employed over 130 women and served thousands more through Community Outreach Services. The women create beautiful jewelry and go on to become managers, accountants, graphic designers, and photographers — transforming their lives from the inside out.
Every purchase from Starfish Project helps restore hope to exploited women across Asia.
Tonga Textiles
Founded by Zimbabwean-born artist Jeremiah Makaza, Tonga Textiles is a family-run business that has grown into a leading international exporter of Zimbabwean-made Sadza Batiks. Set in the heart of Tynwald Industrial Park in Harare, Zimbabwe, the company is comprised of a dedicated team of artisans united by a belief that art can make a positive difference in society.
A proud fair-trade company, Tonga Textiles employs both men and women from the local community. Through their training program, artisans are empowered to work for themselves, helping to alleviate poverty and build lasting self-sufficiency. Sustainability, quality, and teamwork are the values at the heart of everything they do.
Over the years, their products have evolved into contemporary pieces that showcase the true essence of African lifestyle. Every batik is unique, authentic, and entirely handmade — monitored to the very last detail.