Glass carving business blossoms in Sukoharjo

Glass carving business blossoms in Sukoharjo

By Singgir Kartana

SUKOHARJO, Central Java (JP): One cannot entirely depend on
one's intellect to be successful; creativity and persistence are
also necessary ingredients. For Bambang Rudjito, this principle
is very much true.

Bambang, who was born in Bojonegoro, East Java, on Nov. 3,
1952, can now savor his success. The glass carving business he
started nine years ago in Sukoharjo, a small town close to
Surakarta, is now a source of income for him and his family, as
well as a number of his neighbors who work for him.

Bambang's products are unique and distinct, particularly
considering there are few other such businesses. Demand for
carved glass seems to be rising, with sales of the products
reaching international markets, including Australia, Africa,
Lebanon, the United Kingdom and the United States. These sales
have resulted in a turnover of millions of rupiah.

Although his business has become a success, Bambang maintains
his original simple style. You cannot even detect a sense of
self-satisfaction in him.

"There are still a lot of things that I need to develop in
this venture. For these products, I feel the need to improve
their artistic touches so they don't give the handcrafted
impression. With such creation process, these products should be
considered as objects of art," Bambang told The Jakarta Post in
Manang village, Sukoharjo.

Bambang is a person who is not easily satisfied, which helps
him maintain his creativity. This attitude is reflected in his
career before he began his glass carving business.

Two years after graduating from vocational senior high school
STM Migas in Cepu, East Java, in 1970, Bambang, who has studied
English since junior high school, landed a job at state-owned oil
company Pertamina in Cilegon, West Java. Although the job was
good, it bored him and after seven years he decided to quit.

Looking for new employment, he tried his luck in 1981 as a
cabin boy for the Holland American cruise line, making US$500 per
month. He only lasted in this work for a year. In 1982, he moved
to Carnival Cruise Line, where he got $4,000 a month. This salary
enticed him to stay on the job for six years, before he decided
to leave his seafaring career entirely in 1986.

"Always having to work far from home wasn't profoundly
satisfying for me. It may be suitable for those who are single,
but I had the urge to build a family and it was best if I left
such work," says the husband of 27-year-old Dewi Retnosari
Wijayanti.

And it was lucky for him he made this decision, for it was not
long after leaving the sea that Bambang had an experience which
led to his current work. This particular experience happened in
1986 when he visited Mexico. While visiting an art shop, he saw
wonderful glass-carved ornaments.

Seeing the interesting art objects piqued his curiosity.
Without much difficulty, he found out where the glass carvings
came from and he was soon studying to become a glass carver. For
two years, Bambang was a student of glass carving artist Marisol
at Brass Glass in Mazatlan. After two years of study, he returned
to Indonesia.

Bambang accidentally met in 1989 Masrikan, a glass carver
whose creations resembled those he saw in Mexico. However,
Masrikan's glass carving business was on the verge of collapse.

Bambang made an offer for the business which Masrikan
accepted. With an initial investment of Rp 4 million, Bambang had
a glass carving business, with Masrikan as one of his employees.

In the beginning, Bambang was directly involved in the
designing process as well as marketing. Every effort was made to
introduce his products to the public, from door-to-door sales to
participating in various exhibitions.

Now, Bambang Rudjito Glass & Craft can be accessed on the
Internet through a home page belong to Resource Indonesia, an
agency which advertises Indonesian products to international
buyers.

Bambang's venture gets bigger yearly, producing various
products using glass and mirrors as raw materials. Apart from
carved mirrors in various sizes, he also sells various souvenirs,
such as candy trays, stone paintings, jewelry boxes, wayang
paintings and window and door ornaments. All of these products
are produced by hand.

The complicated production process may be why his products are
considered expensive. The cheapest items are wayang paintings,
costing Rp 30,000 each, while the most expensive are carved
mirrors costing Rp 600,000 each.

In line with his success, Bambang has built a production house
and showroom on a 3,500-square-meter plot of land in Manang
village, Sukoharjo. With 98 employees, he is kept busy with the
business.

To assure the quality of his products, not all glass or
mirrors can be used as raw material. For mirrors, he uses
Asahimas with a thickness between three to five millimeters.
However, he would not explain the reasons behind his choice of
raw materials or carving tools. He did say that those materials
not used in his products were sold for Rp 2,000 per kilogram.

Witnessing Bambang's success, both locally and
internationally, there are those who try to imitate his work, but
still cannot match the quality of his products. Still, these
copycats upset him. He said one of them even copied his
promotional brochures.

"Even the brochures have been imitated. Isn't that annoying?"