Thumbprint Artifacts

Thumbprint Artifacts brings hand-painted Shabbat candles made by women artisans in South Africa to your table, bought directly from the makers.

1 / 4

Based: Detroit, Michigan
Since: 2012
Craft: Hand-poured, hand-painted candles

Thumbprint Artifacts started with two Michigan friends who met at age 10. In 2012 Becky Riess, who came from sales and marketing at Kimberly-Clark, and Kris Engle, whose entrepreneurial career had taken her to the UK, India and South Africa, set out to open a US market for fair trade artisan businesses in South Africa, buying directly from the makers.

The candles at ModernTribe come from Kapula, which Ilse Appelgryn started in 1993 in Bredasdorp, a small community in South Africa's southernmost region, to create work for local women. About 90% of its employees are women, and many are single mothers. Every candle is hand poured and hand painted with no patterns or stencils, so each one is a little different. The Shabbat packs at ModernTribe carry hamsas, Stars of David and white-on-white florals, and they're unscented and smokeless.

The friends also run Thumbprint Gallery, a fair trade shop in Detroit's Eastern Market.