Saturday, October 8, 2011 - Jewelry factory on way to Sanur

Today we left our comfy home at the Pertiwi Resort in Ubud and traveled to the Puri Santrian in Sanur.  The town of Sanur seems to be less busy than Ubud.  It is on the Indian Ocean on the south east side of Bali.

www.santrian.com/puri/

Our trip from Ubud to Sanur only took about one hour.  On the way we stopped at a silver factory.  It was interesting to see how silver jewelry is made.  First of all a mold has to be made.  In this mold a was cast is made, by extruding wax into the mold.  This wax replica is trimmed so that there are no pieces of extra wax attached.  These wax pieces are put together onto a  larger tree-like form.  This form is placed into a large machine where silver pellets are dumped, heated to liquid and then replace the wax with silver.  Out comes the rough silver pieces that are then polished and soldered together into the completed piece of jewelry.

Preparing the wax molds.

Mr. Patra explaining some of the soldering that is done.

Polishing and package the jewelry.

The factory we visited was very progressive.  The owner said that every person in the factory is of the same worth.  Each person is important to the company, one job is not better or worse than another, they are all equally important.  He knows  every person who works there, they are all a big family. 

The working conditions in the factory looked good.  The areas were well lit and clean.  Workers had masks and shields where necessary.   The workers looked happy.  Apparently not all silver jewelry factories are that nice to work in.

Leaving the jewelry factory.  (Circular staircase with no handrail!)

After we toured the factory we drove a few blocks further to the store where the jewelry is sold.  They had lots of very nice pieces.  We all bought some jewelry.

We had lunch at the Wicked Parrot.  Most of us had fish and chips as this restaurant was an Irish Pub.  I think many people were ready for some western food.

After lunch we walked across the road to Nogo, a contemporary ikat fabric producer.  They use the same process to weave the fabrics as traditional ikat weavers