Our Artisans

Our creative artisans are based in Bali and East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. Most of them are women and mothers - some of whom aspire to be entrepreneurs, boutique owners, and some of whom are passionate about making positive contributions to their family and community. Partnership with ethical brands around the world, like Everina, help them to cultivate their talents and flourish.

Everina products are crafted in their homes and cooperative centers, with techniques like IKAT and WEAVING, which have been past  down through generations as an important part of their culture. These artisans grew up watching their parents weave, making ikats and carving from various materials - the trinity of Indonesia's cultural craft.

Behind Every Ikat Fabric

East Nusa Tenggara, or what native Indonesians called "Nusa Tenggara Timur" or NTT, is one of Indonesia’s poorest provinces. Despite this challenge - the province produces meaningful and beautiful hand-woven fabrics through techniques which have been passed down from generations. Behind every Ikat pattern that is  produced, there is meaning and cultural significance, referencing indigenous flowers, animals and folktale love stories.

Tenun ikat thread.Everina 

 

We partner with a social enterprise, Tenunkoe, which is a women's cooperative group dedicated to the women of Kupang. They promote and encourage healthy work environments, fair wages, unique skills learned weaving Ikat fabrics, while assisting the artisans in finding the right market for them. 

These women artisans craft the ikat fabrics from work centers (homes) of the Tenunkoe leaders, which are spread out across several points in NTT. The crafting  process can take anywhere from 24 hours to 3-4 days depending on the weather. Once they are finished creating the fabrics, each artisan, can sell their finished product to Tenunkoe, who will then produce those fabrics to be a handbags or clothing. Once the handbags or clothing are purchased by a company like us, the artisans get paid again

Partnering with enterprises like Tenunkoe helps combat poverty currently happening in the province. We hope that we can continue to contribute to the livelihood of the women artisans in East Nusa Tenggara.

 

 

Behind Every Strawbag 

Our founder, Emelie, fell in love with the lush, vibrant and spiritual island of Bali back in the early 1990's, when she was on a vacation with her family. She recalls seeing bold-colored sarongs, handwoven bags and wooden-carved diety statues at the mom-and-pop shops across Bali. Her parents purchased a bright blue sarong, a rattan basket and a hand-carved decor and she was excited to bring them home. To her, it was such a special trip.

Bali Scenery. Everina Bali Ceremony.Everina Bali Ceremony.Everina 2

When she decided to start a fashion accessories brand, she knew she would want to work with hand-worker artisans in Bali, especially with the women community there. We work together and sourced our strawbags from several artisan group and women-owned enterprise in Bali, all of them working from home, creating a safe environment and getting paid fairly. 

Although not all of artisan partners in Bali are women-owned, the majority of the weaving artisans are actually women. They are the ones who have the intricate sense and are patient to finish the work till its full-completion. Each handbags are made with many important steps from raw materials sourcing, natural-smoke process (under the sun for at least 24 hours), coconut-leaves smoke in their smoking facility, weaving and hardware installations. 

Each of our natural materials are sourced locally in Indonesia from a tropical forest in Kalimantan, Lombok and Bali. We use rattan, atte grass, palm leaves and water hyacinth as our main materials, 100% natural and eco-friendly. 

   

We hope that these stories help you to have an appreciation and understanding of who's and what's behind your Everina bags. We sourced these bags for you to be stylish but most importantly to be confident in who you are, your personal and true style and to be the confident in who you were created to be.

With love always,

Everina Signature