Wiracana Hand Fan

Artisan Organization: Wiracana Hand Fan

Country: Bali and Java

"Wiracana Hand Fan was founded by Wiranantaja in the 1970s to create traditional Balinese hand fans. Although we work with limited resources, we continue improving the quality of our art, and visitors to Bali really like them. We are obsessed with creating high quality designs.

"Today, more than half of our fans are created with the help of machines, like a laser engraver. This has helped almost 80 skilled artisans who are now able to create more hand fans — from ten fans a day to about 1,000 fans a day.

"We use mahogany, pine, sono wood and bone to craft our traditional Balinese fans. Many of our designs are inspired by Indonesian traditional motifs like Java batiks, ikat motifs and Kamasan paintings."

In 2012, Wiracana Hand Fan received the Indonesian Goods Design Selection Award from the President of The Republic of Indonesia at Istana Negara, Jakarta."