About Us

Handicraft Importers & Wholesalers:

We are specialist importers and wholesalers of fair trade decorative and ethnic art & crafts from around the world. Our degrees in fine art, plus the experience gleaned over the years, enable us to recognize and appreciate the various art and crafts processes and to select and commission only the finest quality work. We make several major buying trips each year in search of new stock, and to maintain both the quality and continuity of our current range.

Our Products:

Many of our products are hand-carved in wood. Most are original creations by individual craftsmen and women - while others are the products of family co-operatives and small village-based cottage industries. Most items are purely decorative or domestic in nature, but some are traditional or ritual artifacts deeply rooted in local culture. We have a genuine interest in art and culture, and take the time to learn about the origin, function and meaning of everything we buy. We currently have around 2,000 products in our range.

Unlike many other importers and wholesalers we have 20 years experience retailing our own products in our own shops and galleries, and really do know what sells!

Fair Trade:

We have been importing handicrafts since 1988 and were among the first in the UK to operate a fair trade policy, with everything personally selected and commissioned directly from the artist or craftsperson at source in the country of origin. We work very closely with all our suppliers, and take a keen interest in their lives and general wellbeing. We try to visit them at least twice a year and many have become personal friends. We encourage them to be innovative. We introduce new products and contribute design ideas and modifications to develop their existing range, and we offer advice and guidance on presentation and marketing. Every effort is made to ensure that all carved items are made from sustainable cultivated timber, and that non-fade child-safe acrylics are used on painted products. We make advance payments of 50% to enable our suppliers to purchase raw materials, and pay the balance immediately on completion of the order. We have worked with some of our suppliers for 20 years. None of our products are made by children. We are members of BAFTS the British Association of Fair Trade Shops, and a certified BAFTS importer and supplier.

Our aim is to provide long-term employment for as many people as possible, and our direct trading policy currently provides well-paid regular work for about 200 families. We take pride in the quality and originality of our stock and our ability to provide a decent standard of living for so many wonderful craftsmen and women employing traditional skills in some of the poorer regions of the world.

Wholesale Gifts at WorldArtandCrafts.com

WorldArtandCrafts.com was launched in May 2006. Our aim was to create an easy-to-use wholesale website with a unique FAIR TRADE PRODUCT RANGE that would appeal to ethically-minded independent retailers nationally. Prior to this we only supplied our own retail shops and franchise outlets, plus a dozen or so gift shops located inside major visitor attractions such as the Eden Project and Paignton Zoo.

The World Art & Crafts wholesale website has proved very popular (testimonials) and its success has enabled us to appointed an excellent warehouse manager and team, and move into brand new premises in Penryn, Cornwall. We are proud of the fact that as our own business expands our commitment to fair trade is providing greater economic security and independence for our regular craftsmen/women, and new employment opportunities for many others.

Business Start-up Packs & Franchise:

We have a wealth of experience retailing our fair trade products in our own shops and galleries, and as wholesalers we have had the opportunity to assist a great many new businesses in setting up. Our customized business start-up packages ensure immediate profitability in a variety of retail situations including party-plan, craft fairs, shops and galleries. Party Plan and Craft Fair packages start at £100 and our Franchise Shop and Gallery packs from £5,000. We are very happy to offer advice and guidance on any aspect of setting up a gift business from scratch. Click here for Business Opportunities.

Brief History:

World Art & Crafts began life in Falmouth as the 'Morning Price Gallery' in 1988. The gallery was originally conceived as a means to finance world travel for proprietors and art teachers Fred and Maureen Wilkinson through the importation and sale of ethnic art and crafts. The Morning Price Gallery proved to be very popular and soon became a regular port of call for visitors to the South West interested in unusual and interesting art and crafts from around the world. The business grew steadily throughout the 1990s and a new company, World Art & Crafts Ltd, was formed to develop a franchise and establish a fair-trade wholesale operation to supply retail outlets nationwide. The Morning Price Gallery remained in Falmouth until December 2004 when it relocated to larger premises in nearby Penryn. The World Art & Crafts fair-trade wholesale website was launched in May 2006 and our retail site TheFairTradeGiftShop.co.uk followed a year later. The business became almost exclusively web-based after moving to a new warehouse at the Leo Cub Industrial Centre, Penryn, in October 2007.

Our Story

Package Holiday: In the autumn of 1988 we took a package tour of the Far East... to Hong Kong, Bangkok and Bali. It was our first trip outside Europe and the holiday of a lifetime! We had recently left secure teaching careers in London for a precarious self-sufficient lifestyle on a Cornish small-holding and it seemed extremely unlikely that we would be able to afford such a trip again. Yet, incredibly, within the space of 6 months we returned 3 times to the Far East on business.

We arrived home from holiday with a large assortment of inexpensive handcrafted souvenirs and gifts... old masks, shadow puppets, hand-woven and embroidered textiles, batik paintings and sarongs, small primitive bronzes, intricate paper-cuts, palm-leaf books, and a variety of wood carvings. It was only after friends and neighbours began asking if we would consider selling some of them that we began to think about importing items for sale. A few weeks later a chance meeting with a local art dealer resulted in the offer of an exhibition of ethnic art and crafts at his St. Ives gallery the following March... providing we could amass an exciting collection by then. We assured him we could. The possibility of financing world travel through buying and exhibiting ethnic art and crafts was very appealing indeed. We decided at the outset that we would operate a fair trade policy and buy everything possible at source from the artists and crafts men and women.

First Buying Trip: We immediately set about planning our first buying trip. We sold two of our cows to finance the venture and booked another package holiday to the same Far East destinations. This time we travelled out with empty suitcases. Once there we avoided the tourist sites and beaches and concentrated on sourcing stock for our exhibition... returning home just before Christmas laden with bulging baggage and impossible-to-lift suitcases full of handicrafts. We unpacked our stock... animal masks, batik paintings, carved animals, woven belts and scarves, carved chess sets, dragons and mythological flying figures, small stone carvings, and a variety of carved and painted wooden flowers and plants... and once more invited all our friends and neighbours around for their appraisal and guidance on how to price things for the forthcoming exhibition. You can imagine our delight and dismay when they bought half the things on display and began placing orders in advance of our next trip... the trip we were now compelled to make if we were ever to mount a decent exhibition! In fact we made two more buying trips, to Indonesia and India, before the exhibition opened.

Exhibitions: Our first exhibition was at the Salthouse Gallery, St.Ives, in March 1989. It was a huge success, and another exhibition was immediately arranged for the following year. In the meantime we began sourcing other outlets to display our products for sale. These included a travel agent's shop window ( to compliment posters of exotic destinations), and a village post office and store... where demon masks were propped up against cans of syrup! A few months later, in June, we held a major exhibition of Indonesian art and crafts "Shadow and Ceremony" in the Royal Cornwall Museum, Truro, after which we decided to open our own gallery.

The Morning Price Gallery:

We opened our first gallery in August 1989 in a dilapidated former car showroom in Falmouth. We painted the place white inside and out, and called it the Morning Price Gallery... after the special luck-creating "Morning Price" offered to the first customer of the day in the Far East. The gallery was tucked away up a side street so we employed a student to walk around the town wearing a mask and a sandwich board to publicize our whereabouts. We displayed our products on upturned packing cases and wallpaper tables covered with sarongs, and were thrilled to take £788 on our first day and over £3,500 by the end of the week!

Early Days

In the early days the stock reflected our personal preferences and was heavily biased in favour of traditional ethnic art and crafts, both old and new, but it wasn't long before more decorative items were added to the range. Today we have no preconceived ideas about what to include, and simply buy whatever appeals to us providing it is well crafted and represents good value. Our degrees in Fine Art, plus the practical experience gleaned over the years, enables us to recognize and appreciate the various art and craft processes and to select, commission and purchase only the finest quality work. Some of our finds are one-off creations, the work of individual painters, carvers or weavers - while others are the products of family co-operatives and small cottage industries. Unlike many commercial importers we have a genuine interest in art and culture, and take the time to learn about the origin, function and meaning of the individual pieces we buy. We take a keen interest in the lives of the craftsmen and women we meet, and many have become personal friends over the years.

A second Morning Price Gallery was opened in the centre of Falmouth in 1992, and another in nearby Penzance in 1998. We continued to trade in Falmouth for 16 years, until December 2004, when we relocated to huge new premises at Grays Wharf in Penryn.

Update:

Since starting the business we have made more than 50 buying trips to the Far East - including Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the Indonesian islands of Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, Bali, Lombok and Sumba. We have also made numerous buying trips to Brazil, Peru and Bolivia, and India and Nepal.

We have increased our product range to around 2,000 items, and now have a thriving fair-trade wholesale business supplying retailers nationwide. We also operate a highly original informal franchise for anyone wishing to establish an art and craft business in their own locality. Specialist exhibitions continue to be mounted in other galleries and museums from time to time, and fine art pieces and ethnic artefacts are purchased for, and on behalf of, museums and private collectors in Europe and the United States. Our wholesale website WorldArtandCrafts.com was launched in May 2006, and a year later we launched our retail site TheFairTradeGiftShop.co.uk.

On 1st October 2007 we moved into a brand new warehouse just off the A39 in Penryn, Cornwall. The building doesn’t quite have the character of the old place, and the river views will be missed, but it’s fantastic to have purpose-built premises on a single floor, with easy container access and customer parking right outside the front door. We have created dedicated storage areas for the multitude of boxes full of fridge magnets, key rings, pencils, chimes and countless other small things…and bays for larger products such as musical instruments, bags, geckos and masks. We have also invested in new shelving to display more of our animal carvings, palm wood products and Buddhas etc. and everything is generally more visible and accessible. If you would like to visit us click here.