About Us
Handicraft Soul is a fair trade & artisan marketplace, a small business with a social purpose! Our aim is to form meaningful partnerships with global artisans and bring their products to new markets in the U.S. We purchase their handmade goods and pay them upfront for their work, which supports employment opportunities. By connecting high quality, unique products to new customers, we hope to see artisans and their small businesses flourish, creating a ripple of social change through business partnership.
Some of our partner artisans are independent entrepreneurs, while others are part of social enterprise groups, which teach their members new skills, offer fair wages, and provide a safe working environment. Either way, we work with the artisans directly, and often give suggestions on how to ready their product for an international market, or offer ideas for new products they can create that we think will sell well in the U.S. based on our experience.
Many of the goods our artisan partners make are environmentally-friendly, using materials that are upcycled or repurposed (such as old billboards, and tire inner tubes), as a way to keep discarded materials out of the landfill.
We are a bi-national husband + wife team, and we split our time between our two respective home countries, South Africa and the USA (Wisconsin). While in South Africa, we have come across so many talented artisans, who have inspired our current collection of goods. We have personally curated everything we sell, and we value having a connection with the individuals and artisan groups we feature. We also ensure that everyone we work with is paid fairly for their work, and works in a safe, uplifting environment.
In addition to investing in artisans, it is our mission to bring authentic, handcrafted products of exceptional quality from around the world to you! Each product is made with love, and has its own story to tell. We feel it is important to preserve hand-produced craft in a world of increasing mass production and consumerism. When an item is made by hand instead of by a machine, a touch of soul is inherently woven into the finished product, making it endlessly unique. The beauty of each piece is in the variations and imperfections that naturally occur in handmade goods.
If we all work together & support each other we can achieve more -- we believe in this strongly. Our logo features an Adinkra symbol originating from Ghana, which stands for unity and abundance. We strongly believe that through unified efforts, we can achieve abundance for all!
Our product line is carefully selected to create a socially-responsible global shopping experience. Check back with us often...We are always searching for new products and connecting with new artisans, so our inventory changes frequently and often some items are one of a kind.
Thank you for your support, and for your commitment to being a conscious consumer!
Ashley & Max Andersen
