Meet Lindi, a South African Fair Trade Artist

I met Lindi on my recent trip to South Africa and was immediately drawn to her infectious smile. When Lindi smile, you can't help but smile back.

Lindi lives in the Northern Cape province in South Africa and makes handmade and fair trade jewelry including this red number I'm wearing around my neck although it's a tad hard to see with my bright pink sweater. Lindi was engaging, fun and beautiful inside and out. She showed me some of her designs and shared with me the fact that she has taken some jewelry classes offered in Johannesburg. Lindi is talented - as were all of the women I met while traveling to South Africa and Swaziland this month. What they don't have, though, is a market for their work. A sustainable one, at least. One that can provide them with ongoing employment opportunities and a way to help contribute to making their local economies stronger.

Lindi and I will begin working on some jewelry designs and hope to share some of them with you in the coming months. My intention wasn't necessarily to begin a wholesaling business when I traveled to South Africa but I'm excited to be working with several artisans I met so we're going to give it a shot. I think the U.S. is ready for Lindi's designs and I hope you'll agree!

In the coming weeks I'll be posting some of the new products I found while in South Africa and Swaziland online. In the meantime, please keep supporting fair trade. And, if you've haven't become a fan of World Shoppe on Facebook, please connect with us! I just posted 30 photos on our Facebook page this afternoon!

Enjoy your week...I can't believe it's already the middle of August.

-Megy Karydes, Founder
www.World-Shoppe.com
Fair Trade Gifts, Jewelry and Home Accessories from more than 33 countries