22 fantastic Black-owned Etsy shops to support in 2023

Etsy is known for being the go-to destination for anyone looking to buy beautiful handcrafted items. Whether you’re looking for a unique piece to add to your jewelry collection or a statement piece for your home, you’re sure to find something from one of the many incredible sellers on Etsy. In honor of Black History Month, we’ve rounded up 22 Black-owned Etsy shops worth supporting all year long.

Domonique Brown has been selling her artwork through her Etsy shop, DomoInk, since 2020. With over 200 listings on her Etsy page, the California-based artist sells prints of the beautiful pieces she creates, alongside apparel and stickers featuring her work. Brown’s artistic talents have led to her being featured in various publications and to partnerships with companies like Target, which included Brown’s art in its 2023 Black History Month collection. Having those types of opportunities serve as a reminder that her artwork is making an impact. “It lets me know that I’m doing something right. That people are seeing something in my work,” Brown says. “They’re seeing what I’m trying to present, which is black joy — positivity.”

Among her top sellers are her “Queen is Black” print, “Barry Fisherman” print and “Girl Dad” print. While she creates a lot of her art using a combination of markers and acrylic paint, her Black Hair Series showcases some of her digital work.

Through her Etsy shop MKobyArt, Melissa Koby sells her captivating artwork as prints, and on items like shirts, candles and keychains. Initially, the Florida-based artist had planned on selling hand-painted wedding stationery, but Koby says the pandemic crushed that dream before it could be realized. Using the iPad she had bought to digitize her stationary work, Koby began to draw life in quarantine. “When I started it was more about being at peace with being isolated, so a lot of my artwork reflected that,” Koby says.

Koby’s art skills have led to successful collaborations with brands like YSL and Erin Condren, which released planners, notebooks and tote bags with her work on it. Among her shop’s bestsellers is her print “Built on Pride,” which Koby says is “an expression of love for my friends regardless of how they identify.” “We Rise,” which is one of her recent pieces, is also doing well and is an artistic embodiment of Koby’s mission to uplift women.

Lanre Adefioye is the Canadian-based artist behind the Etsy shop Lanre Studio. In addition to selling his original work and prints on Etsy, Adefioye also sells his art on pieces of home decor like clocks and acrylic trays. As someone who has had a love for the arts since he was a teenager, Adefioye says he was inspired to pursue art as a career after seeing the work of Nigerian artist David H. Dale. “I began to nurse the dream of becoming like him someday,” he says.

Vivid colors and geometric designs are central to Adefioye’s frame-worthy artwork, which he says is inspired by life. “My ultimate goal is to maximize the inspiration that I derive from everyday events and turn them into a source of inspiration and happiness for my audience over and again.” Included among his top sellers are his pet portraits and his travel art/maps.

Mark Feijão Milligan II focuses on the African diaspora in his art. His deep-seated desire to create change through art can be seen in one of his bestsellers titled “Inocencia Negra.” Milligan says he created the piece during the summer of 2020, in the wake of the deaths of Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery. “Instead of creating a picture that deals with angst or tension,” Milligan says, “I’ve created what I want and what future I want for my sons — who are actually depicted in the piece and it’s pure innocence,” he says. Also among his bestsellers are “Madonna/Isis” and “Inocencia Negra II,” which Miligan says people buy to pair with the first one. While a drawing may take him anywhere from one night to a week to complete, he says that some of his larger paintings have taken him two years.

Alicia Goodwin is the Chicago-based jeweler behind the Etsy shop Lingua Nigra, where she sells her handcrafted jewelry. Goodwin first developed an interest in jewelry-making after taking a summer camp class when she was 11. “I took a class and it was brass wire work,” Goodwin says. “They showed us how to make rings and earrings and we had to repeat it over and over again until we got it right. I just really picked up on it and really enjoyed it.”

Through Goodwin’s Etsy shop, you can buy everything from nature-inspired bracelets and necklaces to earrings and rings. “I’m inspired a lot by natural forms, elements, beetles,” she says. Customer favorites include Goodwin’s reticulated studs; her bangles, which she has been making forever; and her I Can See the Light beetle earrings.

Through her Etsy shop ItsAllCultureJewelry, Ashley Bebley-Adesiyan sells eye-catching polymer clay jewelry. Bebley-Adesiyan first got into jewelry-making while pregnant with her first child and what began as a hobby while on maternity leave ultimately led to her opening an Etsy shop in 2019. Since then, her jewelry pieces have been spotted in publications like Essence.

Through her jewelry, Bebley-Adesiyan hopes to boost the self-esteem of the wearer. ​​”When you walk out and people acknowledge you and compliment you, that does a lot for your day,” she says. “That’s what it did for me when I started wearing big statement pieces.” Her bestsellers include her “Leo Mood” earrings, her “Tri-bamboo” hoops and her chunky “Devine Twine” hoops which she credits with launching her shop to success. “These were the number one and still are the number one sellers,” Bebley-Adesiyan says of her hoops.

Althea Meade-Hajduk is a North Carolina-based potter who has been running the Etsy shop Althea’s Pottery since 2013. “Every plate, every cup, every bowl, everything that I make, I make individually from a ball of clay,” she says. Meade-Hajduk says she developed an interest in pottery-making after a longtime friend of hers gifted her a beautiful Caribbean blue fruit dish as a wedding gift. “I signed up for a class because I wanted to learn how to make that thing I was just enthralled by,” she says.

Among her bestsellers are her angled pasta bowls and her three-piece dinner set, which includes a dinner plate, a salad plate and a soup bowl. Recently, Meade-Hajduk opened another Etsy shop called TheaBromaChocolate, where she sells the chocolate she makes from scratch.

Pepper Sims painted her first pot in early 2019 before creating her first collection in September of that year. Since officially launching in 2020, Sims has had her pots featured in publications like Oprah Magazine and Essence.

For Sims, painting plant pots is an expression of love. “Everything I create comes from the heart. I do it from love, and it’s something that started with my grandmother — the love of plants and having that time with her.” Her pot designs are inspired by the different shapes she sees while hiking and by color. “What feels right and looks right to me is usually what I go with,” she says. Among her bestsellers are Desert Days, which is one of Sims’ older designs, Mega and Ablaze.

Tal & Bert

Valencia and Raymon Talbert offer gorgeous geode-centric candles, planters and vessels through their Etsy shop Tal & Bert. ”The first day we posted, we got 10 or 12 orders right off the bat,” Val says. The geode-centric design of their home decor stems from Val’s love of crystals and recreational mining. “My parents got me into it because they realized I liked rocks and crystals and things like that, so they kind of honed and nurtured that interest for me.”

Val says their candles are what draw most people to their line. “Our candles function as art. Our work is functional art because it’s meant to be a statement piece or a piece to be talked about.” Another customer favorite are the couple’s geode vessels. “A lot of people put them on their desk just to add a little color to it,” Val says.

Jasmine Friend has been selling the handcrafted soy candles and wax melts she makes in Georgia since 2020. She decided to start making her own candles after struggling to find pure soy wax candles in Augusta. After receiving positive feedback from her family and friends, she decided to start selling her products.

Friend’s bestsellers include her Pineapple Sage Candle, Strawberry Guava Candle and Birthday Cake Candle. Through her candle business, Friend hopes to spread love and positivity with each sale. “We have a slogan that we say — good smells and good vibes — so we hope that we are sending love and positivity and good energy with each candle,” she says.

T.W. Aromatics and Co.

Trenace Williams got into candle-making after realizing that she could make her own candles instead of buying them. “When I learned that I could go out and buy the materials for it, that’s what I did and I just kept researching and testing until I found what worked,” she says. William’s Amber & Oakmoss incense cones are one of her bestsellers along with her White Sage and Lavender candle, Sea Salt and Orchid candle and Sweet Lemon and Verbena candle.

Renesha Wolfe is the fourth-generation gullah basket weaver behind the South Carolina-based Etsy shop Sankofa Sweetgrass. At 13, Wolfe began learning from her aunt how to basket weave. “We would get up in the morning and we would make the bottoms for her and then she would go from there to make a complete basket,” she says. At 15, she began to learn how to make the full basket herself.

Wolfe likes to weave late at night while listening to gospel music or jazz and says it can take her anywhere from 6 to 8 hours of straight work to complete one of her smaller baskets. Wolfe’s bestsellers include her Elephant Ear Basket and her coasters.

As someone who has always had a love for making things, Kwadwo Som-Pimpong says he would beg his parents for Legos whenever a Toys ‘R’ Us was nearby. “I would pour them out on the carpet and work all day long on my projects,” Som-Pimpong says. He got into woodworking in 2015, after struggling to find the furniture pieces he wanted for his new home. Taking matters into his own hands, Som-Pimpong decided to try and make some end tables for himself. “It was pretty crude when I look back at the pictures, but what sparked was a love for the process,” he says.

Depending on the size and complexity of the table, Som-Pimpong says it can take him anywhere from 10 to 15 hours to complete a piece, while something smaller like a cutting board or a shelf will only take a couple of hours. One of his bestsellers is his Modern Square Coffee Table, which features a pedestal base and is available in walnut, oak, cherry or maple wood.

Marie Mutesi opened her Etsy shop Agahozo alongside her mother in 2017. In Kinyarwanda, Mutesi says that Agahozo means “something which gives comfort or encouragement,” which is a meaning she hopes applies to her baskets. Initially, Mutesi’s mother wove the baskets, but after a few months, Mutesi says they decided to work with a cooperative. The shop’s intricate handmade baskets are woven by women in Rwanda and are named after the weavers, she says.

When Nicole Alesi first started her business, she made cards that reflected the type of representation she felt was missing from the market. “My friends who are gay were getting married and there were not appropriate cards for them at the time, so I started making cards for them,” she says. Through her Etsy shop, Alesi sells colorful stickers, buttons and cards some of which are inspired by her NYC surroundings and pop culture. Alesi’s bestsellers include her dinosaur birthday card and her Batter Than You friendship card.

As a full-time social worker and someone who has always been artistic, Kyra Ghilas uses her Etsy shop as both a creative outlet and an additional stream of income. “Etsy helps me continue doing the things I like outside of work,” Ghilas says. Ghilas’ popular items include her human rights stickers, cactus stickers and custom gift tags. “They’ve been really popular for bachelorettes, for proposals and adding to bachelorette gift bags or even as wedding place cards,” she says. Although she doesn’t do invitations very often, they are one of her favorite orders to fulfill, along with place cards for events.

Style and beauty

When Ade Ogbomo was a child her grandmother taught her how to sew. As an adult, she put those skills to work by making her nephew an Ankara bowtie so he could match her church outfit. “I looked online and everything I saw looked flimsy and poorly made,” she says. She decided to open her Etsy shop after her bowties continued to garner attention. Through Gabe Jade Accessories, Ogbomo sells African print hair accessories, bowties, neckties and dog bandanas. At the heart of her business is love, which she says is the basis behind the matching pieces she creates. One of Ogbomo’s bestsellers is her Queyoun necktie, which is named after her friend who is modeling the piece.

Lamont and Aurian Henry began making their own body butters after researching natural ingredients they could use to tackle their skin concerns. After Lamont’s sister encouraged them to try and sell their products, the couple decided to open their Etsy shop. Their body butters, which come in a variety of scents, are formulated with organic, cold-pressed oils and mango, shea and kokum butter. “I really want to make sure that people understand that what they see is what they get,” Lamont says. Their products are also vegan, cruelty-free and paraben-free. Their bestsellers include their Vanilla Bean, Lavender Vanilla and Sweet Mango body butters.

Through her Etsy shop, Malacia Anderson sells the stunning African print clothing she designs and makes herself. She describes her pieces as African-inspired with a vintage flair and has been designing and sewing her own clothing since she was 10. When it comes to designing her pieces, Anderson says she likes to mix the old with the new, and will pull her inspiration from Pinterest, street style and old sewing patterns. In addition to her kimonos, the other popular items in her store are her dresses and her skirts. Anderson hopes that people feel confident when wearing her pieces. “I make them to measure so that gives them the flexibility of having an item made specifically to them outside of what they can get in the store,” she says.

Indulgence Spa & Body Products

As someone who was always making her own things, Stephanie Willoughby says Etsy was a way for her to do what she loved on a big scale. And in this case, that meant creating her own bath products that help people make some real quality time for themselves and indulge. “I want everyone to have a moment to be a little selfish, to have a moment to themselves to just focus on their well-being and relaxing,” Willoughby says. Included among her shop’s bestsellers are her sugar scrub and her shower icing in the fragrance “Butt Naked.”

Katherine Theobalds is the creative mind behind Zou Xou, which is named after a character played by actress Josephine Baker. Through Theobalds’ Etsy shop, you can buy beautifully crafted mules, flats, boots and sandals that are handcrafted by a small team of artisans in Argentina. Theobalds started her business in 2015, and decided to launch her Etsy shop after realizing that her product needed to be exposed to people who were in the market for artisanal goods. “Really it was to find niche customers,” she says.

The designs for Theobalds’ footwear are inspired by her lifestyle and by color. “I find myself drawn to certain colors depending on the season,” she says. Among Theobalds’ bestsellers are the Eugenia Flat in Black and Zou Xou Mule in Black.

Charmed Bath & Body

With over 12,000 sales, and an average review rating of 4.8 or higher, Charmeas Edris’ products speak for themselves. On her Etsy page, Edris says her products are handmade in Greenville, South Carolina and produced in small batches. One reviewer who purchased her bath salts wrote “Smells lovely! I chose the larger container and I wish it was bigger. A real treat.”