Arta Derau Prints: a new Ubud art space

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The Elami and Co team headed into the far north of Gianyar to visit the brand new Arta Derau Prints. Co-founders and established artists Sekarputi and Agugn have created the space to be an artist’s residency, exhibition gallery, print-making studio and all round creative compound. Such an unusual and much needed vision for the arts in Ubud. Thank you to the team for having us visit! Can’t wait to see what beautiful things start to happen at Arta Derau Prints over the first year.

About the founders

Sekarputi Sidhiawati is a visual artist who focuses on stories about the empowerment of women to give them and herself the drive to continue working. She mainly works with ceramic, a material that represents domesticity and women in general.

She was born in Jakarta in 1986 and completed her formal education at the Faculty of Art and Design ITB-Ceramic Art studio. She is now known as the founder of the studio Arta Derau, while consistently working in the art world. After working in Bandung, in 2018 she moved to Bali to expand her ceramic studio business. With a focus on women-related issues, Puti is a finalist of several fine art awards such as the Soemardja Art Award (2010) and the Bandung Contemporary Art Award 2013. She has joined several prestigious exhibitions include Jakarta Contemporary Ceramic Biennale, National Gallery of Indonesia (2014); Temperature Affect, Museum of Fine Arts and Ceramics Jakarta (2017); Manifesto, National Gallery of Indonesia (2017); Termasuk, Darren Knight Gallery Australia (2018); Southern Constellations: The Poetics of the Non-Aligned, Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova, Ljublana-Slovenia (2019).

Agugn is a graphic artist who experiments with traditional printing techniques like linocut and woodcut. Since his debut exhibit in 2013, his works have been showcased globally, including NY, Paris, and Tokyo.

Get to Know: Rumantra—illustrator, designer & plantsman

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Rumantra is hard to introduce, a person with many deep loves and multiple projects always going on. People’s eyes tend to get very big once you introduce him and run through the scope of his activities. We asked our favorite multipotentialite some hard-hitting questions….

You wear so many hats, tell us about them all.

Creative Director & Owner at Rumantra, Plant Hoarder at Thousands Bloom, Loyal Servant of Toean Moeda Kanda, Teacher & Founder at Melajah Mandiri (Free Creative Entrepreneurship School for Balinese), Production & Curator at Elami & Co

What’s your favorite plant? Answer quickly!

Musa ‘Little Prince’, the tiniest banana tree in the world!

What’s a plant that everyone should know about and why?

OMG, it's a species of Pitcher plant (Nephentes rajah). It is a carnivorous plant that is able to eat not only insects, but also lizards, small mammals, and even bats! BUT BUT BUT that's not the craziest part, the craziest part is it has this (allegedly) mutual symbiosis with tree shrew, so this plant produces some sort of nectar and attracts tree shrews and when the shrew consumes it it works as a laxative that forces the shrew to poop right into the pitcher. This plant then digests it, just like a multivitamin. Nonbotanist people named this plant the toilet plant.

What do you wish you’d grown up to be?

Biologist! Go on an adventure to the Amazon rainforest, finding new species, studying plants and animals, maybe finding Eldorado?

How has your art practice changed over time?

I was the weirdo in art class back in school, never getting a good grade because my teacher said it was too weird. Then as my interest in biology developed, I got more and more interested in scientific illustration.

Drawing to me is like studying, observing, and even dissecting species of flora & fauna. Fantasizing about being a biologist in a lab but with pencils, pens, and paper instead of creepy knives and lab stuff.

How would you describe your drawing style?

It's a mix of etching, line art and decorative with a drop or two of art nouveau/deco.

Besides art and plants, what else keeps you engaged/enraged?

Animals, music, cultures & tradition, weird geeky stuff, street food and Beyonce.

And finally… what brings you joy working in the Elami team?

I mean there are no crazy new age shitty people here so that's good.

Elami just reeks of creativity which I love, so much room to experiment in creativity like for example decorating a restaurant with moss, live crickets, fish nets, lost flip flops from the beach and LIVE SNAKES!

This office also provides great snacks!







Artist Illustrated RSV Helmets for Ubud Open Studios

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One of our favorite details from Ubud Open Studios was this collaboration between our sponsor RSV Helmets and three studios joining the event.

A different RSV Helmets model was given to Aswino Aji of Sika Gallery, Sekarputi of Arta Derau and Bagus Ari Maruta of Purga Art Space, each with their wildly unique and distinctive styles. They took two weeks to paint the helmets and the final results were amazing. You could even say traffic stopping…

The Afternoon Tea Series at Powder Room by Room4Dessert

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Room4Dessert is ready to launch its newest family member, Powder Room.

Powder Room is the neighborhood candy store, re-imagined. Filled with artisanal candies and sweet treats that bring nostalgia made from local ingredients, healthy alternative sugars and zero added preservatives or ingredients we all can't ever pronounce.

We’re excited to be working with the R4D team again to create a series of afternoon teas featuring Ubud artists, incredible food, and a chance to gather around the long table in the beautiful space that is Powder Room.

The first event is with the creatrix of Arta Derau, Sekarputi.

Spend your Saturday afternoon with us, let your creativity flow drawing the perfect cup design together with Sekarputi from Arta Derau. Powder Room by R4D will be taking care of you afterwards, serving our new lines of best sweets to be paired with the great tisanes from Made Tea.


It's a wrap: the second edition of Ubud Open Studios!

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The 2023 Ubud Open Studios was an incredible honor to put together—70 studios over three days joined to participate in the Studio Showcase at Titik Dua; an Artist Forum including discussions ranging from what it means to be classically trained vs self-taught, to the future of digital art; and two days of studio visits by eager attendees soaking up talks, workshops, and demonstrations.

Our vision for this event was to help revitalize Ubud’s identity as a thriving community of artists, map the incredible creativity taking place in the area and strengthen ties between artists. We hope we succeeded in making that happen. Thank you to all our supporters, partners, and sponsors for helping us produce this event and bring it to life.

“I feel so incredibly fortunate to have been all over Ubud in the past 3 days visiting some amazing artists for the second annual Ubud Open Studios. Not just for the ceramics, painting, sculpture and textiles but also for the wonderful people we met along the way as we weaved through rice paddies and tiny overgrown lanes, discovering places you would never usually gain an insight into... and always welcomed with big beautiful smiles. Thank you Ubud Open Studios - see you next year!”

“It was amazing. You are all rock stars. This felt like a much-needed & exceptionally well-enjoyed event. People should fly in for this. All the art one misses from being in a metropolis exists here but it's behind closed doors, and y'all opened the floodgates. I wish I got to visit more new studios. The ones I enjoyed the most are the ones I've never visited before, a good note to self for next year! Try new things :)”

And our work here is done... Keep an eye on the Ubud Open Studios Instagram for more beautiful shots. Huge thanks to official photographers Arley Mardo, Herry Santosa (photos below), Suki Zoe, and Ade Ardhana.

71 studios joining the 2023 Ubud Open Studios event

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Ubud is such a vessel for amazing creatives and artists. This year we have over SEVENTY studios joining, up from 52 last year. We can’t wait for the doors to open. See the full lineup with links to each Instagram at Ubud Open Studios.

Ubud Open Studios 2023: our second edition!

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We’re very happy to be back in the throes of planning the second Ubud Open Studios! This time we have 70+ studios joining the event!

We will also have a special event hub at Titik Dua Hotel where we will also have a Studio Showcase, an opportunity for you to physically walk through the studio directory. Each studio will be represented by a piece so you will be able to see which studios you’d most like to visit. We have our dear friend Summa Durie lending her curatorial skills to the showcase.

This edition we’ve created one day passes and two day passes, as well as a a community sponsor if you’d like to support the event as a whole. If you’d like a printed catalog, please add that to your ticket before you check out.

Behind the design: Aboubakar Fofana x Threads of Life Workshops

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Threads of Life’s Natural Dye Studio hold regular classes and special workshops by visiting artists. Aboubakar Fofana is an indigo dyer, artist, textile designer, calligrapher and teacher. He is best known for his sublime indigo and mineral mud-dyed textiles. Aboubakar is back for his third time in the Threads of Life Studio and is leading three workshops.

We created the artwork for the 3 classes based on the beautiful colors of the natural dyes, especially the incredible blues of the natural indigo.

Will leave you with some very wise words on the true cost of fashion from Aboubakar Fofana:

Behind the design: Uluwatu Surf Villas Artist Series

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In our work with the incredible Uluwatu Surf Villas, we produced different merchandise as part of their Artist Series, collaborations with illustrators and artists from Indonesia and abroad.

The first artist we worked with to transform their artwork from digital to screen-printed fabric was the talented Christina Budi, an Indonesian batik illustrator based in Amsterdam. Christina is known for her modern batik print designs.

Christina received a list of Uluwatu Surf Villa icons like the kingfisher birds, monkeys, local fishing boats, Balinese offerings and temple gates, and the fish that patrol the waves. She also received a color palette of classic batik shades of blue and brown. She then created an incredible design and pattern. We took it from there to create a pattern and make it screen print ready for production.

The second artist we had the honor of working with was Niluh Pangestu, a Balinese artist working with linocut and digital illustration. Niluh offered up icons from several of her recent works to be turned into a series of cards, t-shirts, notebooks and tote bags for the property.

A glimpse of Ubud Open Studios 2022

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Through the eyes of our talented photographers.

Thank you to Arley Mardo, Herry Santosa, Neyna Rahmadani, Shayna Pitch and Brandon Nadeau of Studio Suka.

Gallery by Arley Mardo:

Galley by Suka Studio:

Gallery by Neyna Rahmadani

Gallery by Herry Santosa:

Behind the design: Ubud Open Studios

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Ubud Open Studio participants received a printed catalog, a tote bag and a wrist band.

For the printed catalog we were so happy to be supported by the team at Fedrigoni Paper Indonesia. Fedrigoni is a 134-year-old specialty paper company from Italy. We were so happy to be able to incorporate their papers into the printed catalog. The covers were printed with a holographic foil.

For the tote bags, we worked with the team at Pithecanthropus to incorporate different pieces of batik into the tote bags.

51 studios joining the Ubud Open Studios lineup!

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We’re overwhelmed by the response to Ubud Open Studios! Over 50 studios are joining us for the first year and there is so much to see and experience.

Special events include:

Studio Jencquel TALK

Design Philosophy of Studio Jencquel

SATURDAY 15 October 2022

10:00AM— 11:00AM

A rare chance to hear from the designers themselves as they discuss their key projects and achievements

Threads of Life TALK

The culture and meaning of Indonesia's traditional textiles

FRIDAY & SATURDAY 14 & 15 October 2022

10:00AM—11:00AM

Join Jean and Tutut in this exploration of textile motifs and ritual use.

Threads of Life + Kajimundo DEMO

Indigo screen-printing and painting demonstration

FRIDAY & SATURDAY 14 & 15 October 2022

11:00AM—1:00PM

Kajimundo has developed an amazing natural latex screen printing method that they will be sharing with visitors.

Gaya Ceramic Art Center DEMO

Wheel throwing and Sculpture Techniques (figurative)

FRIDAY & SATURDAY 14 & 15 October 2022

All day

Featuring Valentina Zlatarova, Bulgarian figurative sculptor and current artist in residence.

IBUKU Studio TALK & STUDIO TOUR (BAHASA INDONESIA)

It's Bamboo, It's Us

FRIDAY 14 October 2022

4:30PM—5:30PM

How we approach bamboo, from each individual experience and history, until eventually a personal relationship is formed between design, feelings, ideas and nature that will be integrated with beautiful teamwork in IBUKU Studio, Bali.

Featuring Sharon Julya and followed by IBUKU Studio tour.

In Indonesian language.

IBUKU Studio TALK & STUDIO TOUR (ENGLISH LANGUAGE)

Nature-led Design

FRIDAY 14 October 2022

3:30PM—4:30PM

A glimpse into the way Elora Hardy and the IBUKU Team have created a new design and architectural vocabulary based on bamboo and natural materials. By honouring and embracing nature and complementing it with technology and innovation from the incredible human mind, their nature led design process has redefined sustainable architecture.

Featuring Elora Hardy and followed by a IBUKU Studio tour.

In English language.

Kerta Art DEMO

Traditional Balinese dance (by donation)

FRIDAY 14 October 2022 3:00PM—4:00PM

The performing arts collective is providing an opportunity to learn more about the art of Balinese dance within the traditional and contemporary performance world.

Kerta Art DEMO

Contemporary and Wayang Performance (by donation)

SATURDAY 15 October 2022

7:00PM—8:00PM

An amazing chance to see behind the screen of a shadow puppet performance.

Pithecanthropus STUDIO TOUR

A Guided Tour Behind the Batik Textiles

FRIDAY 14 October 2022

10:00AM—11:00AM

Come see what and how they work on batik in our studio. From taking inspirations of lesser known batik motifs to hands-on techniques of batik printing and stamping, Pithecanthropus invites you to join their journey of discovering Indonesian textiles.

Pithecanthropus STUDIO TOUR

A Guided Tour Behind the Batik Textiles

SATURDAY 15 October 2022

3:00PM—4:00PM

Mistresses of Metal TALK

The Mistresses of Metal: Metal and Women's Empowerment

SATURDAY 15 October 2022

11:00AM—12:00PM

A window into the nitty gritty of what it is like to be a woman in jewelry. Exploring the creative inspiration of our design process, artisanal production and female-preneurship

K U M B H A K Ā R A DEMO

Live Barrel Firing

FRIDAY 14 October 2022

3:00PM—4:00PM

Wrap a bisqued clay piece with materials supplied, to go into the fire. Attendees can then pick up the final piece in the next day or so. A wonderful chance to see some clay alchemy in action!

Toko Elami is open: our little gift shop in Jl Kajeng, Ubud

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We now have a store in Ubud! Come and vist us at Jl Kajeng No 19. Open Tuesday to Sunday, 11am to 7pm.

Everything is handmade in Indonesia, supports local makers, and makes a great gift no matter the occasion. We’re calling it gifts for the design curious.

We had a crazy idea a few months ago: what if we took Toko Elami from the virtual to the real? In a blink of an eye, we had a brand new space secured on what is now the new Ubud Market street, Jl Kajeng.

Jl Kajeng used to be a sleepy side street, known for cement squares containing messages from past visitors, some dating back to the early 1980s. Now it’s alive with hundreds of pedestrians checking out the temporary market stalls that have popped up since the traditional market began its renovation process.

We have all of our own products in there (Snakes and Ladders Bali, Lotería de Bali, Monoprint Notebooks) and have been so happy to welcome thirteen tenants, including brands and artists that have been longtime collaborators and friends. It wouldn't have been possible without the expert guidance of Sylvia Fairmann of Tao Collection. Thank you a million times, Sylvia!

We have the beautiful eco print work of Cinta Bumi Artisans, handmade candles by NOKA Design, handbuilt and handpainted ceramics from Arta Derau, prints of Maya Kerthayasa’s incredible pen drawings, hand-crafted leather pieces by Samoi, crocheted hats by VT.TVN, Boemi Botanical’s clean body products, Rumantra’s pieces to adorn the body, ArtNiluh’s mini scarves, stickers and pins from ByWilzzie, breast-inspired jewelry by Elppin, hand-carved wooden hiking mugs by Bushcraft, and art collaboration merchandise by Ketemu Project.

Keep up to date with all our news and products over at Toko Elami’s Instagram.

Behind the design: Events at Uluwatu Surf Villas

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We’ve been working with the team at Uluwatu Surf Villas for a few months now. Such an incredible property and landscape to get inspiration for our work.

High on the jagged cliffs towering over Southwest Bali’s world-famous waves, is the definition of surfer’s paradise: Uluwatu Surf Villas. Blessed with private access to the sand and surf, it’s the place where active soulful pursuits meet Bali’s singular mysticism and warm hospitality. Premium villas, bungalows and loft accommodations—hand-built with reclaimed teak and ironwood, plus Balinese artisan-crafted decor and antiques—are idyllic windows to a magical world

The seaside, the beach, the ocean, so many places where the imagination can express itself without limit. The escape of thoughts, the freedom of the spirit, the lightness of the movements—all inspiration for art directing, in a nod to their surf heritage and identity.

Events at Mana Uluwatu and Uluwatu Surf Villas are focused on community, relaxed vibes, and, of course, the incredible ocean and sunsets in all moods and forms. We chose to work in a liquid feeling to their artwork.

Working from their existing brand guidelines, we created a cohesive look for their digital event promotions For regular events (Wednesday Jazz Nights and Friday Poolside Beers) and for special one-off events (workshops, opening of their new skate park, & special music guests).