Tempted??

I'm in Jepara, a small coastal town north of Semarang which is the hopping off point for ferries to Karimunjawa. For most it's just a short hiatus in their journey, for others it's a destination in its own right.

intricately carved scenes - the last supper is quite popular too

I'm not talking buffalo shit seat...

fancy a cuppla oriental warriors guarding your front door mum?

these are huge! made from a single log

no feeding required

Jepara is famous for it's woodwork, furniture making and woodcarving. It's a family industry, with factories everywhere, making beds, cabinets, tables, doors, chairs, grandfather clocks, ornaments, carvings, bowls, intricate carved tableaux, and ducks with boots!

Teak is the main material used, sourced from plantations in Central and East Java. You can wander down roads full of factories and display stores, see the whole process from start to finish. You can order anything you want made, and someone will make it, for an unbelievably cheap price. You've then got to transport it home!!

I'm in Jepara a little longer because I've been couch surfing at Anna's house and she's been showing me around and explaining the business. She sources products for buyers (local and international) and arranges their shipping. So if I want to buy some stuff here, I have a reliable contact to ensure it gets to Australia. Tempted?

My mate Kate has some nice outdoor furniture made from old boats that she bought in Australia. Someone else imported them, and she would have paid top dollar for them. When you discover how much they are to buy out of the workshop, even if you doubled that cost to get them home it's still well cheap. Tempted?

bits of old boat

One of the factories showed me the process. They buy the old boats (scroll through a few of my old posts to see lots of painted wooden boats) and scrap them, cut the wood and glue them onto a form, then sand and finish them. Any size or shape, any finish can be requested, whatever height you want can be accommodated. They make chairs, tables and cabinets, all very tempting!!

bits of old boat

the lumber up top is ready for cutting

pieces cut into blocks and laid on a form, then glued down

ready to be sanded and finished

2.5 x 1m table, rough, rustic finish.

a smaller table, but with a much smoother finish and wood edging

I'm pretty keen to get a table and chairs for my verandah, and maybe even a cabinet. If I can fill a container then the shipping cost per item reduces markedly. So I'm kind of putting it out there if anyone else is interested in purchasing stuff that we can all ship together and share the costs. If people want to on sell at a profit, that's fine too. I'm actually tempted to do just that myself.

So, if you're interested, let me know. I'll be shipping to Perth so only WA people I guess. You can email me at whatsnextnaomi01 at gmail dot com and we can start talking. As Anna lives here in Jepara there is no rush and these things take time to order, make and ship anyway.

Tempted???