Wardana

Artisan Organization: Wardana

Country: Bali and Java

Ketut Wardana was born in 1980. All his family worked as wood carvers and as a consequence, he started learning to carve wood when he was very young. At the age of nine, he made his first pieces. "I liked to make animal statues and then play with them," he recalls.

"At the time, I went to school and also worked as a wood carver. I learned many things and often depicted animals like I did as a boy. But one day I decided that I wanted to do something different.

"For Balinese people, family and relations are very important. I am very attached to all my family and I think that family and love are the most important things in the world today. So I decided to show this in my pieces, and this is how I started representing love in my wood carving."

After finishing school, Wardana decided to work by himself. In his pieces, he combines love with good quality wood carving for a different kind of design. "Many of my clients are foreigners so I came up with the idea of making wine bottle holders," he says. "Everywhere people like to drink a good glass of wine.""