Baobab Batik is a Malkerns, Eswatini workshop founded in 1991 by Dutch artisan Els Hooft, who learned wax-resist batik in Benin and Tanzania before bringing it to Eswatini. More than 15 women artisans hand-dye cushion covers, aprons, children's leggings and homeware, sold online worldwide.
Best for Batik homeware, cushions and children's textiles
Els Hooft, a Dutch-born artisan, first encountered batik dyeing while traveling in Benin and Tanzania. She brought the technique to Eswatini and, in 1991, founded Baobab Batik in Malkerns as a workshop employing only women, on the belief that every woman deserves the chance to build a sustainable livelihood.
What began as an experiment with melted wax and dye grew into a working craft business. Batik's characteristic unpredictability, wax cracking as it cools and dye seeping through the cracks, produces mottled patterns that the workshop markets as evoking African landscapes and wildlife; the artisans work primarily in natural fibers, including cotton, rayon and linen.
Today more than 15 women artisans work at Baobab Batik, producing homewares such as cushion covers and kitchen aprons alongside a children's line of leggings, toys and soft goods, sold locally in Eswatini and exported worldwide through the workshop's online store.
At the Peak Craft Centre in Piggs Peak, Coral Stephens hand-weaves mohair, cotton and raffia into carpets, curtains and throws using yarn spun and dyed on site. Its woven goods are sold from the craft-centre showroom in northern Eswatini.
Ngwenya Glass blows eco-friendly glassware entirely from recycled glass at its Motshane workshop, from wine glasses and decanters to its signature African animals. Pieces are sold at the factory shop and through a full online store shipping worldwide.
Since 1982, two South African art graduates and their successors have hand-sculpted millefiore candles and wax animal shapes at a Malkerns Valley workshop that has grown into the Swazi Candles Centre, a Fair Trade-certified craft hub with galleries and the Sambane Tea Garden.
Best for Hand-sculpted millefiore candles and wax animals
Swazi Candles started in 1982 when two South African art graduates began working out of a converted cowshed in the Malkerns Valley, building a business around millefiore - a technique of layering and cutting colored wax to form intricate patterned shells around each candle. That original workshop has grown into the Swazi Candles Centre, a craft destination combining the working studio with galleries, additional craft shops and the Sambane Tea Garden, alongside a separate manufacturing facility in the Matsapha industrial area for scaled-up production. The range has expanded well past patterned pillar candles to include animal-shaped pieces, 100% soya tea lights, wax-encased battery-powered glow lamps rated for roughly 100 hours of use, handmade vegetable-glycerin soaps and marula-oil body balms. The company is a certified Fair Trade employer through SWIFT, running with 45 permanent staff who receive healthcare and pension benefits, and it maintains an organic vegetable garden as part of its community program - details that place Swazi Candles closer to an accountable manufacturing operation than a roadside craft stall. From that single cowshed workshop, the business now exports to more than 20 countries while keeping the original hand-sculpting technique, and a visit to the valley today means the candle-making floor, the tea garden, and the export warehouse all sit within the same site.
Founded in 1985, Tintsaba works with rural Eswatini women to create finely graded sisal baskets, silver jewellery and home décor, including certified Master Weaver pieces. Its work is sold from the Peak Fine Craft Center in Piggs Peak.
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