Our Artisans

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Awe & Wonder prides itself on connecting with a variety of Artisans to create naturalistic play and learning resources for young children. We provide ethical employment opportunities to artisans all around the world

Gde is one of our talented artisans who works in Indonesia creating some of our favourite wooden toys and educational resources. Here, in his own words, he tells his story...

My name is Gde, I come from a village right near Mount Batur, which is named Batur Village, Kintamani District, Bangli Regency. I was born and grew up in the family of a farmer.

Growing up, my daily life after school was helping my parents in the garden, such as raising cows and looking for firewood to sell.

After graduating from junior high school, I decided to work. The place where I worked for the first time was at one of the restaurants in my village, namely Lake View Restaurant and I worked at that restaurant for a long time. After a few years I worked there, I wanted to get to know more people to add to my experience, I finally decided to migrate to Denpasar City with my wife.

The job I took while in Denpasar was as a car washer and my wife worked as a garment maker. As a car washer, I had to work at night until the early hours of the morning. Despite this, I was very happy with the job and did it for about a year.

In between working hours, I took the time to learn how to drive, thanks to my wife's support and high interest in learning, I was able to master it quickly and started working in a transport company for approximately two years. With the abilities I have, I decided to start my own career.

With meager capital, I bought a car with credit at the bank and worked with a travel agent in the Kuta area and lived it for 4 years. After leaving the agency, I became a freelance driver to get more opportunities and worked with travel agents from China for several years.

In the midst of this collaboration, I met a tourist from Australia named Sonya. Every time she came to Bali, she asked me to take her shopping for wood crafts.  After several years of taking her shopping for wood crafts, I wanted to learn to be a wood craftsman. I did not have a background as a craftsman and do not understand wood and other things related to wood. But I did have a strong desire and determination.

I began to learn to make one of Sonya's products, some simple stars and flowers. At that time, I started to learn about wood. But at that time I was not familiar with machines for production, only using a knife and sanding with my hands.

The results of the stars and flowers that I made, turned out to be liked by Sonya and she gave me a new craft making stackers, which she also liked. From that moment on, Sonya started giving me orders and trust to produce so many orders.

I am very happy and very responsible in carrying out my work so that I always produce the best goods. And I am very grateful because during the covid-19 pandemic I can still work and help some of my closest people who have dropped out of work to join my work team. I have been doing this work since 2017 until now.

That's the story of my life experience which at first was just a farmer and now a wooden toy craftsman, thank you so much from me.

All wood that Gde and his team use is SVLK certified. This certification ensures that wood and wood products are legal. and adhere to sustainable forestry practices. The SVLK certification covers the entire supply chain, from production to distribution. 

 

I am an emerging Aboriginal Artist; proud Ballardong , Menang & Yamitji Moort Yok. I was born and grew up on Noongar Boodja - Kinjarling Albany ‘ Menang Boodja Rocky Gully in the Lower Great Southern of Western Australia, Mount Barker & Rocky Gully. I have been living and working here in Perth on Whadjuk Boodja since 2010. I have a background in schools, working with children in special needs education support centres.

Karda Artwork is my art signature; with Karda meaning Hills in Noongar Language. I started my journey as a full-time Artist in 2022.

When I paint I feel relaxed, grounded and I feel connected to my Moort ‘family’, Culture and Boodja ‘Country’. I love creating artworks with traditional earthy tones and painting with bright bold contemporary colours. Inspiration for my designs come from the colours and movement/patterns we see in our Barna, Worl and Boodja - ‘Animals, Skies and Landscape of our beautiful unique country’.

I enjoy sharing my culture through my artwork designs; being able to create and paint visual yarns/stories.

Simone Hills Karda Artwork is an Artist Member of the Indigenous Art Code. This means as an artist I am adding my voice to the call for fair and ethical trade with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, and transparency in the promotion and sale of artwork.

 

Sunita Sherpa  - Defying all odds, she broke down walls for other women to get inspired. Even at a young age, she managed to run a 500-member company in hopes to create a safe haven for all. Sunita is one of our partners in felt products, helping us bring some of the most vibrant and beautiful ideas to life. All our felt products are covered by GoodWeave Certification, SedEx Audits and the principles of the WFTO. 

Nyungar Elder Neville Collard is a well known local to the Western Australia community. Uncle Neville wood burns a variety of designs onto educational resources for Awe & Wonder, providing immense authenticity and sensorial value.

 

Nyoman Yudiana - Employs over 30 Artisans to create Handcasted Resin and engraved wooden Products. Awe & Wonder uses resin as it is more durable and resistant to general wear and tear. It's also more eco-friendly than plastic, as it's made from organic material that degrades faster than synthetic material.