About Bamboo furniture from Bamboozled.

All our furniture is made specially to order by crafsmen and women in the village of Blahbatu, about 25km outside Denpasar in the Gianyar region of Bali. We deal directly with a family who have made bamboo furniture for many years so the quality is very high. All the people employed in the workshop are members of the family or extended family so everybody benefits from furniture sales. The bamboo is cut and stored in a drying area for approximately two months. Bamboo, the fastest growing plant known to man (some varieties grow upto 18 inches a day), is found wild all over Indonesia and other parts of the world. It is harvested locally and regrows in a matter of months so no forest is destroyed in the process of furniture production.

Lengths of bamboo in the drying area
After the drying process the bamboo is treated for insect infestation. It is then handcrafted into the various items of furniture using traditional tools (no power tools or machines are used). The furniture is pegged with sharpened bamboo pieces and finished with rattan bindings to protect the joints and ends. After this the furniture is sanded and a coat of varnish is applied which enhances its natural sheen and at the same time gives added protection.

Sanding and varnishing the finished furniture
After the furniture is completed it is packed in ridged cardboard for protection and loaded into a container for shipping to the UK. From Blahbatu village our furniture travels overland to Gilimanuk port in north west Bali. After the short hop to east Java it travels to the main port of Surabaya where it is loaded onto a container ship bound for Southampton. It takes approximately three - four months from the time we place our order to the time the furniture arrives in the UK, with about six weeks actually on the water.