Gepeng Floor Jar

ARTISAN: Inaq Kartini
Discovering the art of Lombok pottery with Dalaiah Kusner, Ten Thousand Villages Buyer

Every piece of Lombok pottery is entirely hand-built using no wheels and very simple tools: a pen, a bamboo twig to measure, a pencil for etching, a pot of water, a rag and a plastic bag to hold the precious clay

Nearly every woman in this Indonesian village makes pottery. They learned from their mothers, a custom of craft and kin called turun temurun. Clay is dug nearby. Colors are achieved through firing—by using ordinary materials like straw and coconut husks in simple, communal pits. Families use the pottery they make—to cook, collect water, store food and belongings— and it is their livelihood. Pottery is a centerpiece of life for the Lombok people; it is intertwined with who they are and who they become.

The heart of their story is how empowering their art can be. Through Lombok Pottery Center cooperative, women own a share of the enterprise. In an impoverished area with little economic opportunity, the centuries-old tradition of hand-built pottery is a gold mine of beauty and soul—a treasure in an unexpected and unassuming place.