Bali · Bali
Mas woodcarving
Mas and Tegallalang in Gianyar regency are Bali's woodcarving centres, working mostly in suar, crocodile wood and hibiscus. The capability is sculptural and decorative rather than structural, which makes them the wrong place for case furniture and the right place for almost everything else.
What makes it different.
- Carving rather than joinery
- The skill here is shaping, which is different from the frame and panel work that furniture needs. Jepara is the furniture answer and Gianyar is the carving one.
- Workshop scale
- Family workshops rather than factories, frequently a handful of carvers. It makes bespoke work practical and makes large uniform runs a coordination problem.
- Species
- Suar, crocodile wood, hibiscus and coconut. Each behaves differently in a dry climate, and the drying question matters as much on a carving as on a table.
- Design ownership
- Designs travel between workshops in a village where everybody sees everybody's work, which is worth understanding before commissioning something distinctive.
Getting it out.
- Benoa or Surabaya
- Bali's own port handles containers with less frequency than Surabaya, so many Bali exports move overland to East Java for a better service.
- Crating and voids
- Carved pieces are irregular and fragile. Crating and void fill is where the damage claims are decided rather than at the workshop.
What we source here.
Indonesian wooden homeware
Boards and bowls are wood products and food contact articles at the same time. Two sets of rules apply, and most buyers only check one.
Indonesian teak root furniture
Root and stump pieces from cleared plantations. Why no two are alike, what cracking really means, and why the paperwork is unchanged.
Questions buyers ask.
Should I order furniture from Gianyar?
For carved and sculptural pieces, yes. For case goods, dining sets and anything structural, Jepara and the Central Java workshops are built for it and Bali generally is not.
Will my design stay exclusive?
In a village where workshops work side by side, realistically not for long. Register what matters, split the work where you can, and price on the assumption that a good design will be seen.
Does carved wood need kiln drying?
Yes, for anything going to a heated climate. A carving that keeps drying after it arrives cracks in exactly the same way a table does, and the crack lands on the visible face.
What does your service cost?
Five per cent of the order value, paid by you and never by the factory. A factory audit starts at $250 depending on location. We work with orders from $10,000 per shipment.
Worth reading.
Buying from Mas and Tegallalang, Gianyar?
Tell us the specification and the port. We go to the region, look at the material and put the documents together before anyone quotes a price.