Company Name: Artisanne
Website: https://www.artisanne.co.uk/
Founders: Elizabeth and Emma de Vise
Business: Artisanne is a business that sells handwoven, traditional Senegalese baskets.
Founded in 2014, Artisanne was created after the two co-founding sisters Elizabeth and Emma de Vise discovered a passion for the traditional Senegalese baskets. Every basket sold by Artisanne is Fair-Trade, and made in the small villages of Senegal.
The business was made not only through a love for the product, but also to help women in the Senegalese villages to earn a fair and regular wage for their expertly woven baskets. The company now has 75 Senegalese women weaving for them, each basket checked both in Senegal and again during arrival in the UK to ensure consistently excellent quality.
A major part of the company for the two co-founders is the ethical, Fair-Trade nature of their business model. Elizabeth and Emma de Vise started Artisanne determined to have a close relationship with their weavers, enabling their employees to directly express any issues that may arise for them.
The company offers a wide selection of handwoven products; from lidded storage baskets in a variety of different colours to bowls and trays. The Artisanne baskets are perfect to use as fashionable storage areas, and come in a range of different sizes, shapes and colours. Artisanne uses the traditional weaving techniques used by their Senegalese employees and incorporates modern designs to create its unique yet fashionable products.
Artisanne have big plans for expansion in the future, claiming during an interview conducted by TechRound that “As Artisanne has grown, our close relationship with the artisans has meant we have been able to train some weavers to organise, manage and quality control their own group of weavers. We are proud to of this work and are committed to the women’s further development and empowerment.”
