Success story of dried flower business
Success story of dried flower business
Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Malang, East Java
They are a different kind of flower, but no less beautiful.
What's more, they last a lot longer that the usual floral
decorations.
They are dried flower bouquets, created and arranged by Rien
Samudayati, and displayed along with other handicrafts at her
showroom, Rien's Craft, in Malang, East Java.
Upon closer examination, though, one can see that these floral
bouquets are not entirely made from real flowers. Instead they
are made from a combination of corn skin, palm leaves, corn seeds
and home-made dried flowers and grasses.
"Indonesia is not an ideal place for real dried flowers, the
damp climate makes them get moldy and mildewy too easily," Rien
said in an interview recently.
Of the many varieties of flowers grown in the country, only
about 10 percent are able to be processed into dried flowers for
bouquets, she said, adding that it was difficult for even these
10 percent to retain their original coloring.
"It is easier to dry Indonesian wild flowers and grasses, but
they, too, often lose their color," Rien said.
The architecture graduate, who has been making dried-flower
arrangements since 1981, said she first started the business
after her husband bought her books on dried flowers during a trip
to the Netherlands -- the world's largest producer of flowers.
"I hail from Jakarta. I found Malang was too quiet. My husband
bought me the books so that I would have something to occupy my
time," she recalled.
Furthermore, her habit of collecting bits of leaves, flowers
and grasses during trips with her agriculture-lecturer husband to
plantations and fields has enriched her knowledge of flowers and
resulted in various unique bouquets.
At her showroom, which doubles as a workshop, dried flowers
are suspended from the ceiling and the corners are decorated with
artistic grasses.
At first the bouquets were just a hobby, but word soon spread
and orders for wreaths and dried-floral bouquets for weddings and
commemorations poured in.
However, as a business, dried-flower bouquets by themselves
were unable to bring in the kind of profit worthy of such a
complicated art.
"It's just too complicated. Besides creating every individual
flower, I have to arrange the bouquets myself so that each one is
different from the others. I cannot just make a sample for my
workers to copy," Rien said, adding that it didn't take long for
her to be overwhelmed with orders.
Her shift to natural handicrafts began some nine or 10 years
ago, to supplement the dried-flower bouquets.
"I still do bouquets, but for special orders only, and my
products now are these handicrafts," Rien said gesturing to an
assortment of pencil cases, photo and mirror frames, and tissue
holders.
Every item was made from some sort of item from nature. For
example, the pencil cases and tissue holders are decorated with
colored seeds and small dried flowers and leaves, and the mirror
frames are made from the skin of the petai cina.
However, even though her products have found their way to
Bali, Jakarta, Surabaya and as far away as Singapore and
Malaysia, Rien never takes orders that are too large.
"I only take orders that I can handle with my 15 workers, and
I never want to bother with shipping my exported products," she
said, adding that she leaves the shipment to the buyer so that
she is not hassled by all the red tape and quality control.
"What I do is not purely a business, it's my hobby," Rien
said.