World Industrial Directory Network

The handmade trade of the world, mapped for buyers.

15 craft families. 57 producing countries across five regions. 24 working craft cities. Written for importers, wholesalers, designers and sourcing teams who need to understand a category before they contact anyone in it.

15Craft families
57Countries
24Craft cities
8Chain stages
7Buyer guides

Every producing country

Asia, the Middle East and Central Asia, Africa, the Americas and Europe — craft is not one region’s trade.

Asia

Middle East & Central Asia

Africa

Americas

Europe

Browse by craft

Each family behaves differently on tolerance, compliance, price and freight. Start here.

Craft family

Handloom & Textile Crafts

Cloth made on hand-operated looms is the largest single family of handicraft trade, and the hardest to buy blind.

Craft family

Embroidery & Needlework

Hand embroidery is priced by stitch time, not by cloth.

Craft family

Handmade Carpets & Rugs

Hand-knotted, hand-tufted, flatweave and felted floor coverings form a trade with its own vocabulary: knot density, pile height, warp material, wash and finish.

Craft family

Pottery & Ceramics

Wheel-thrown, hand-built, slip-cast and press-moulded ceramics reach world markets as tableware, garden ware, tiles and decorative objects.

Craft family

Metalware & Brassware

Brass, copper, bell metal, pewter, wrought iron and silver-plated goods are shaped by casting, sheet raising, spinning, repousse and engraving.

Craft family

Woodcraft & Carving

Carved panels, turned bowls, inlaid boxes, furniture components and architectural salvage all sit in this family.

Craft family

Stone & Marble Craft

Hand-carved stone reaches buyers as inlay table tops, sculpture, garden ware, architectural elements and small giftware.

Craft family

Handmade Jewellery & Beadwork

Silver, brass, beaded, enamelled, filigree and tribal jewellery move in very high volume and under very tight regulation.

Craft family

Leather Craft

Hand-stitched bags, footwear, saddlery, bound books and embossed decorative leather form a category where the tannery matters as much as the artisan.

Craft family

Cane, Bamboo & Basketry

Woven plant fibre is the most widely practised craft on earth and the least standardised.

Craft family

Paper Craft & Papier-Mâché

Handmade paper, papier-mache objects, paper cutting, quilling, marbling and hand-bound stationery form a light, high-margin export family with unusually low freight cost per unit.

Craft family

Lacquerware & Painted Wood

True lacquer, shellac turnery, painted folk furniture and decorated wooden objects sit at the meeting point of woodcraft and painting.

Craft family

Glass Craft & Beadmaking

Blown, lampworked, fused, etched and stained glass reach markets as tableware, lighting, beads and architectural panels.

Craft family

Handmade Toys & Dolls

Wooden toys, cloth dolls, puppets, spinning tops and folk figures carry the strictest safety regime in the whole craft economy.

Craft family

Ritual & Devotional Objects

Icons, statues, incense holders, prayer objects, masks and ceremonial textiles form a trade that runs on cultural accuracy as much as on craftsmanship.

Craft cities of the world

Places where a buyer can meet several workshops in one trip.

🇨🇳 China

Jingdezhen

A thousand years of continuous porcelain production, with kiln, mould, glaze and decoration all available inside one city.

🇻🇳 Vietnam

Bat Trang

A ceramic village outside Hanoi supplying tableware, planters and decorative ware, strong at glaze variety and mid-volume runs with a mature export packing culture..

🇮🇳 India

Jaipur

A multi-craft city rather than a single-trade cluster: blue pottery, gemstone cutting and setting, hand block printing, meenakari enamel and carved marble within one buying trip..

🇮🇳 India

Moradabad

The largest brass and metal handicraft export cluster in the world, now working across brass, aluminium, iron and mixed-material homeware with mature electroplating and lacquering capacity..

🇹🇭 Thailand

Chiang Mai

A design-forward craft city with carved teak, silver, celadon ceramics, sa paper and hill tribe textiles, and an unusually strong culture of working with foreign designers..

🇮🇩 Indonesia

Ubud, Bali

Village-level specialisation across carving, silversmithing, painting and weaving within a short radius, supported by export packing and consolidation in Denpasar..

🇹🇷 Türkiye

Kütahya

Turkey's working ceramic and tile centre, producing traditional Cini patterns and contemporary tableware, with hand-painting capacity that scales across many workshops..

🇲🇦 Morocco

Fez

Tanneries, zellige tile cutting and blue-and-white pottery concentrated in one historic production quarter, with brass and woodwork trades alongside..

All 24 craft cities →

How this directory works

We publish no supplier lists and store no company data. Every row opens a live AI search written for that exact question, so the answer is current on the day you read it. Generic questions are scoped to the world rather than to any one country, so results are never narrowed to a single market.