indonesia

going to Indonesia yourself

If you are planning a trip to Indonesia, you might enjoy staying at our friend Komang Anantara's homestay and experience the real Bali. He designed his pleasant house himself with guests in mind and built it himself as well, with help from friends and relations. There are woodcarved panels and views of terraced rice fields. Early mornings you may see a monkey in the banana trees.
While baby chicks scurry around otdoors, you can check your mail or surf the net. Komang has been a chauffeur for years, so he can take you anywhere you like. He knows the addresses we used during purchase trips, as well as all tourist attractions- from dofins to doluble ikat. If you want to bathe in the river springs, learn to play the rindik; be part of a temple ceremony, or watch a gamelan rehearsal: no problem!
More at Komang's own site: Pondok Mimpi.

our assortment

Indonesia is where it all began for us and where we still frequently go. We have been buying arts and crafts since 1996, often designed especially for us. The articles we show at the n- new from old- reycled and natural products also all come from Indonesia. Vietnam is going to be added before too long and on a smaller scale.
Right now it is just pictures and stories, to give you an idea of what we brought over from Indonesia as well as the way in which.
Once the webshop opens we will show prices and sizes and try to make it easy to find what you want.
If you are curious about what we sell- our old incarnation, Oooom Piet, will have a large selection of Artist's materials at the TextielPlus Fair held at the Great or Lebuinus Church in Deventer on Friday March 25th and Saturday March 26th. Lots of our golden silk cocoons and silk yarns and fleece from the wild silk of Java which the Cricula moth produces. Natural indigo for dyeing, and handspun cotton from Flores, Sumba and Nusa Penida, as well as pure copper foil, beaten tree bark and bookbinding grass, coconut shell buttons, and semi-precious stone beads.
With regard to the prices- ah well. At Oooom Piet customers once in a while spontaneously raised a price because they thought it was too low, and many people told us our shop made them feel greedy. If you donot buy too much we think the total at ni9neLives will not be so high. Unless of course you include batik tulis, the 'written' batik where the wax is applied with a little funnel rather than stamped on the cloth, or a high quality leather wayang shadow puppet or a valuable big ikat cloth from Sumba.
Even our silver jewelry is quite affordable, in spite of the explosive way in which the price of gold and silver has risen. Sterling, and yes, we have a few pieces of high carat gold in stock as well.
Our special designs use semi-precious stones such as lapis lazuli, tiger or falcon eye, amber, jade. Ogehana has made 'knit' silver for us, and we have some traditional Balinese gold-plated jewelry- earrings and hair ornaments.
For those who like to make their own jewelry we also sell silver beads and little locks and silver wire and a variety of hooks for earrings- all sterling and nickle-free.
WHAT FOLLOWS STILL NEEDS EDITING-.
a variety of our own design clothes as well as traditional women's wear such as sarung and kebaya and wide range of more or less traditional shirts and blouses, often with special fabrics such as lurik and ndek; ikat sarungs and scarves from Flores, the very special Sumba ikats; batik in many qualities, including batik tulis and silk; wayang- puppets, screens, giftware; children's toys such as sinning tops, rattles, creepy-crawlies; artists' materials- copper foil, silk cocoons, silk fleece, handspun yarn, indigo dye; handmade paper, books and cards; Balinese nylon and bamboo kites- birds, butterflies, bats; rice spoons and other buffalo horn items- AND MUCH MORE!
Next to that, we have many friends in Indonesia, and still often go there, even if Oooom Piet does not require two containers a year anymore. We are working together with people such as Anke and Geertje of RiseforFashion in having their trendy rice and flour sack bags produced and ourselves are working on recyced paper to be used for bags and other articles by the same very nice Bu Lana in Jogja- by now as much a friend as a supplier.