Crossing Continents
DesignSTL|July/August 2018

Wabbani wants to connect indigenous craftspeople with customers worldwide.

Megan Mertz
Crossing Continents

IT’S SAID THAT a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. For Wabbani, every finished product that arrives in St. Louis starts with a single action—cutting reeds, digging clay, and harvesting cotton—carried out 3,000 miles away, in Guyana, South America.

Wabbani is a for-profit social enterprise that seeks to connect artisans in remote areas with customers around the world through handmade add-ons that fit IKEA’s Bjorket, Ekestad, Grimslöv, and Torhamn cabinet lines— or any Shaker-style cabinet with panels that are recessed more than 1⁄8 inch.

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