Is my payment secure?
Your online payment is handled through PayPal, which you can use even if you don’t have an account there. If you’d prefer not to pay online, please feel free to call us at 443.927.9239, and we’ll happily take your order over the phone. Also feel free to fax your order and credit card info to the same number. You can also send us a check, but you’ll have to wait until it clears before your order ships.

You have items from Cambodia, Haiti, the Philippines, and Vietnam. Do you travel to all those countries?
Of course! We try to visit the artisans and fair trade producers with whom we work at least once a year. And, we’re always happy to tell you about the people, places, and stories behind the product. We hope you’ll think of shopping at Three Stone Steps as one degree of separation between you and the artisan.

Is Three Stone Steps a charity? Does the money go back to the people who make your products?
We’re not a charity; we believe in a “aid through trade” model. We pay our producers well—above the prevailing wage for the region—and upfront. We pay our producers at least 50% up front, so that they can buy the materials needed. We work with many of the same producers year after year to have the maximum impact. Basically, the more products we’re able to sell, the more we’re able to buy, and the greater positive impact we’ll have on the people who make our items and their communities.

They make recycled dreidels in the Philippines? Menorahs from recycled oil drums in Haiti?
They do now! Three Stone Steps is delighted to work with talented artisans to design products that are literally unknown in the countries in which they are made. There’s something special, and very small worldly, about relating the miracle of the oil burning for eight days and hear it translated into Haitian Creole.

Does your name have anything to do with those famous white marble steps in Baltimore?
We wish we could say yes, since our worldwide headquarters are based in real, live Baltimore rowhouse complete with marble steps. While we’re proud of being a Baltimore-based business—ok, we’re proud of being Balimoreans!-- we need to let you know that the name was inspired while touring a house in Penang, Malaysia, far away from Charm City. You can read more about the name here.