9 fun facts about Sasak Market

1 - All our towels are named after our favorite beaches in Lombok

Did you ever wonder why we call our towels Ekas, Gerupuk and Mawun?

Well, it is very simple. We named our towels after our favorite beaches in Lombok. All these beaches are absolutely beautiful and amazing surf spots.
Here are some photos of the towels and the respective beaches.

Beach Towel Mawun

Beach Towel Ekas

Beach Towel Gerupuk

2 - We are working with over 55 artisans at the moment

We started our project with the goal of helping and supporting artisans in the island of Lombok. When we started, we worked with 5 artisans that made our first products. As we grew, we started including more and more artisans and now, we are very proud to say that we are working with more than 55 artisans on a daily basis.
Isn’t this incredible?

3 - We support now 10 different communities in Indonesia

We are now purchasing our products from 10 different communities in Indonesia and soon we will be able to include even more more.

4 - Liza made her first coconut bowl in the Philipines and it took her 5h to finish it

Liza always loved coconut bowls. Her goal was to be able to eat some tropical fresh fruits from a coconut bowl. 
As we could not easily find it there, she made her own coconut bowl. She found a discarded coconut shell, bought sand paper and then spent 5 hours polishing the bowl by hand into perfection. She was tired in the end but she accomplished her goal.

Don’t worry, Liza will not be making your bowl!
Every Sasak Market bowl is handmade by our amazing artisans and the result will be perfect. 

5 - Paulo made our first macramé

Paulo is amazing! We still don’t understand how, but his abilities are endless. When we started our project, we wanted to understand how every product was made and the effort necessary to make each product. Only by understanding this, we would be able to ethically work with our artisans making sure to pay their work fairly.

Since it's part of Paulo's responsibilities to find the best artisans and products, he decided to spend some time understanding the skills necessary to make a macramé plant hanger... so he made one!

This macramé is still our first official macramé product and is now in Vila do Conde in Paulo’s home carrying a cute plant.

6 - Our Coconut Plant Hangers are named after native plants from Indonesia

Our famous Plant Hangers are called Melati and Arum.
Some clients asked us why, so we are more than happy to explain it. 
Melati and Arum are some of the most known and famous native plants from Indonesia.

The Titan arum (Amorphophallus titanium) is a flowering plant that is endemic to Sumatra in the Indonesian Archipelago. It is a truly spectacular plant that is known for its very large flower which can rise up to 3 meters from the ground.

Melati is the national flower of Indonesia and is a small white flower with sweet fragrance and has long been considered as a sacred flower in Indonesian Tradition, as it symbolises purity, sacredness, graceful simplicity and sincerity.

Coconut Plant Hanger Arum

 

Coconut Plant Hanger Melati

 

7 - All the orders are sent from Paulo’s mom in Portugal

If you’ve seen our story already, you should know that we (Tiago, Paulo, Liza and Sara) are living in Lombok at the moment and making sure that we have a close connection with the artisans. You might be wondering, “If they are in Lombok who is shipping their orders at the moment?”

Thanks for asking! We ship all our products to Portugal through cargo (most sustainable option possible) and from Portugal Margarida ships every single order to its final destination.

Margarida Carvalho is Paulo’s mom and by far the best most hard-working mom ever! She is a stay at home mom and has been helping us fulfilling all the orders coming from our clients.

We would love to ship a little bit of her famous Assado de Carne (Portuguese dish) with every order but unfortunately that is not possible.

8 - We had a very successful Crowdfunding Campaign in 2020

In September last year we launched our crowdfunding campaign. We needed 19'000CHF to turn our dream of supporting artisans in Indonesia into reality, so we decided to reach the community of supporters in WEMAKEIT.

https://wemakeit.com/projects/a-bridge-to-lombok

The support was absolutely amazing and we reached our goal with more than 20'000CHF after one month!
We will never forget what these amazing people did for us so we created a mosaic in our website with a photo of every supporter that will always have a small place in our website and big place in our hearts.

You can still support us here.

9 - We sold to 35 different countries worldwide

After one year that we started Sasak Market, we already shipped to more than 35 countries including countries like Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Japan and Fiji Islands.

Our artisans get very excited every time we tell them about the places their handmade products are ending up.

It’s still unbelievable for us to think about how far we were able to bring the products that were so kindly made in Lombok.

 

We hope we brought you some interesting facts about us and the beginnings of Sasak Market! Tell us which one of the facts was the most surprising for you by leaving a comment on the comment section below 😊