WELCOME TO OUR WHOLESALE PORTAL
Our new website was created with wholesale buyers, event planners, interior designers, and volume orders in mind. Apply now to shop fair trade, artisan-made goods in bulk.
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We determine minimum order quantities to achieve the standard volume minimums per product and make the best possible use of everyone’s resources. If you are ordering multiple products from the same artisan and producer group, it may be possible to reduce an individual product’s MOQ.
Our new website was created with wholesale buyers, event planners, interior designers, and volume orders in mind. Apply now to shop fair trade, artisan-made goods in bulk.
ALREADY HAVE AN ACCOUNT ? SIGN IN
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Click below to learn more about our new model and how to shop to support artisans.
Social enterprise WomenCraft works with more than 300 artisans in 17 villages in the tri-border area of Tanzania, Burundi, and Rwanda. The artisans include women who settled back into their home communities, refugees, resettled individuals, survivors of genocide, Tanzanian hosts of refugees, and artisans living with HIV.
Previously, several of the women were once struggling subsistence farmers. Many of them have assumed the responsibility of caring for the surviving children of extended family members who lost their battle to AIDS. With WomenCraft, they can increase their crop yield while having a work-family life balance, send their children to school, and provide their families with better nutrition and healthcare. They have significantly improved their quality of life, started new business ventures, gained equality and respect with their spouses, and supported their families and communities at-large.
The talented artisans practice a weaving technique that is traditional to Hangaza culture in Africa. This specialized coiling technique combines natural grasses interwoven with vibrant materials of the region. Through the time-intensive technique, artisans weave each grass coil in a series of carefully planned rows, fusing traditional weaving with a modern aesthetic. This technique is passed down from one generation to the next, primarily from mothers to daughters or women to women. It is also unique to the artisans’ communities.
To produce these baskets, artisans masterfully use sustainable materials including locally harvested grasses and recycled grain sacks along with small weaving tools. They carefully plan the design of each piece and subsequently align rows of grass to reveal a unique shape and design. It takes anywhere from two to seven days to complete each piece; the length of production is dependent on the size and unique design of each piece.