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How
We Started
Bali.
Where is that and why would anyone want to go there, I wondered
when a man I was working with described his first trip there. That
held until the fall of 1995 when I went on a cruise. Our head
steward was from
Bali.
Another cruise on the same line and I was getting interested. In
June 1996 I went on a three week exchange to
Bali, led by the wife of the man I had worked with. I landed on
this tiny island in
Indonesia in the Indian Ocean and knew that my life would never be
the same. But I had no idea what an impact there would be. In 1998
I returned with my husband for another three week visit. My
daughter makes jewelry and asked me to find her some Balinese
silver beads. While I never began making jewelry myself, my
fascination with Balinese beads began. I have been to
Bali a total of 7 times, including that first trip and after
experimenting with beads for a couple years on eBay, I got serious
about the business this summer. My own interest in
Bali
is in the culture, religion, and native healers. You'll find some
items, such as incense and traditional keris oil(a keris is a
ceremonial dagger) in our store. Although I have yet to visit other
islands in Indonesia, we also have products from
Lombok,
Sumba, and
Flores, islands to the east of Bali with their own distinctive
cultures and crafts.
Beads
 Our
beads are handcrafted of sterling silver. Each of those tiny dots
and swirls is applied by hand using glue and then soldered. While
this kind of work has traditionally been the province of the men,
more and more young women are learning these skills. In fact many
of the beads are made by women because of the bead size and
intricacy. While all of our beads come from companies on the
island of Bali, some are made in Java, the large island, to the
west. |