Where to find Arts & Crafts in Bali

Bali is a mecca for arts and handicrafts. The way they do it over here, is that a particular village will specialize in one thing. I guess this started in the good old Bali tradition of ‘my neighbor is having success doing this, so I should copy’. One expat I talked to said it doesn’t occur to locals to sell other stuff. For example, in Celuk, the silversmith village, they don’t sell woodcarvings. But imagine if you were the only one selling woodcarvings, you might actually sell some!

You can take bus trips to villages that specialize in various products, its easy to get the places mixed up.

Here is a list of villages with handicrafts:

•Bangli – Coconut & Bone carvings / Silver
•Banyuning – Pottery
•Batuan – Baskets / Painting
•Batubulan – Stonecarving
•Bedulu – Painting (traditional calendars)
•Belayu – Weaving (Songket)
•Beratan – Silver / Weaving (Songket)
•Blahbatuh – Gongs / Gamelan
•Bona – Bamboo furniture & Baskets
•Budakaling – Silver & Gold
•Celuk – Silver & Gold
•Gianyar – Weaving
•Jati – Woodcarving
•Kamasan – Painting (Wayang style)
•Krambitan – Painting
•Mas – Carved masks and other items
•Mengwi – Weaving
•Patean – Pottery
•Pejaten – Pottery
•Penarukun – Carvings
•Puaya – Carved masks / puppets
•Sawan – Gamelan instruments
•Seminyak – Blogging
•Sempidi – Ceramics
•Sideman – Weaving
•Tampaksiring – Coconut & Bone carvings / jewelry
•Tegallalang – Woodcarving
•Tenganan – Weaving (Geringsing, double-ikat)
•Tihingan – Gongs
•Tohpati – Painting
•Ubud – Woodcarving / Painting
•Ubung – Pottery