Woo! Today was much better than yesterday. Field research today, so once again we tapped into the power of personal connections, and Abhi and I went with Dian and Putra to Desa Nagasepaha Village to meet with a Sahab (offering holder) maker, as well as a glass painter.
In order to get to the village we went up and down some really steep hills, which made me a bit concerned for the motor bikes, and drove through an amazing bamboo forest. Our first interview with the Sahab maker taught us that many if our assumptions are true. Competition from lesser producers is driving prices down, and as a result artisans cannot make a living wage with their craft. For this woman and her ten employees they only make Rp. 2,500 a day, or 25 cents, through the creation of these detailed crafts, their only job. This is not enough to live on, so while these women are making money they and their families are dependent upon their husbands income. We asked the woman what she needs in order to expand her business, and she said more connections with her customers, and also mentioned how the current distributors she works with take a huge portion of the profit from her.
Our second interview with Kadek Suradi, a glass painter, confirmed our assumptions that artists want to expand their businesses, they simply do not have the resources or knowledge to do so. Despite limited computer skills, and no easy access to a computer, Suradi expressed desire in creating his own website to better market his product in Bali and Indonesia. I should also mention that the paintings Suradi does are phenomenal, and I would be returning with a duffle bag full of them expect that I wisely realized that upon arrival my duffle bag would contain shards of glass rather than paintings. Thus, I left without a painting, but I did get a business card which I will be pasting in my little travel scrapbook to remember the beauty with.
We then met up with the rest of our group at a Balinese restaurant serving the famed suckling pig. Since I hadn’t been too impressed the first time I decided not to partake, but Abhi and Cody said the food was delicious, with the exception of the fried blood that they both tried. I really didn’t feel the need to try that, and instead enjoyed a lunch of bread, crackers and an apple. Somewhat healthy perhaps?
Though hours of discussions we decided that we are going to create a Co-op Art Shop that artisans can join, allowing their art to be marketed physically in Singaraja, and online through the shop’s website. There are many more decisions to be made and issues to work through, however I am surprisingly excited about this venture and I think our whole group is as well. During our critique today we fought back with vigor, quite unlike yesterday where we all got a little depressed, and though we have untold amounts of work to do I am committed to seeing this model succeed here and perhaps replicated elsewhere.
Thus, I’m ending today perplexed by my love of this solution to an issue I have never before cared about, but really excited to see where the Seven Semut (that’s our group name if I never mentioned that) take this project.
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