Ahimsa jewelry
are designed by Dewi Loho and team, hand crafted in Bali and now have now gone global and getting the attention
of International buyers. Dewi herself traveled from festival to festival, from
local community festivals such as Wisata Yoga in Bandung, to International festivals such as Bali Spirit Festival and Asia Yoga Conference to promote her beautiful line of jewelries.
Ahimsa collections can now be seen in
countries like Thailand, Singapore (Isetan),
Hong Kong and New York, because of it’s uniqueness, high quality
craftsmanship and their warmhearted manner towards their costumers.
Yogainindonesia had the chance to seat with the inspiring and beautiful Dewi Loho and talk about her journey to bring
Ahimsa Jewelry to the world.
Q. Where have you
taken and introduced Ahimsa Jewelry so far?
A. So far we have
taken Ahimsa to various yoga festivals, yoga events and wellness exhibitions
around Asia and Australia. In Indonesia, we were exhibiting at the Bali Spirit
Festival in April, followed by the Wisata Yoga Bandung in May and Namaste Day
Festival in June 2015. For Australia, we participated in the MindBodySpirit
Festival in Sydney and Melbourne, both in June 2015, and then followed by Hong
Kong for the Asia Yoga Conference. We have also been selected by the ISETAN
department store in Singapore to take part in their specially curated wellness
section which features various brands of clothing, jewelry, health and wellness
product. This has been one of our pride since we are the only one representing
Indonesia in the selection!
A. Offcourse! Part of
my mission is to spread the message of love, Ahimsa, around the world, while at
the same time taking the beauty and craftsmanship on Indonesia jewelry to the
worldwide yoga community, which is still our main target market, although it
doesn't close the door for another opportunity and to penetrate into a more
general market who appreciate the beauty of handcrafted jewelries and
beautiful, hand-selected gemstone. The one thing that I have been holding
strong as a principle in designing is to always focus on the quality. I worked
with a small, family owned silver workshop in Bali who produce only limited
quantity, but with a beautiful, detailed craftsmanship that worth all the extra
effort. My hope is to reach to those people who will share my values and
beliefs, and who will be able to feel the love that goes into each carefully
handcrafted pieces.
Q. How was the responds of the International buyers when you promoted Ahimsa Jewelry at the festivals in Australia and Hong Kong?
A. I have been very happy and flattered by the response that we received overseas across all the events. Most people have never seen such yoga inspired design before, especially the Sun Salute collection, and thus they are attracted to the uniqueness and also the craftsmanship!! It has been a rewarding and also encouraging experience to hear so many positive feedbacks and it drives me to focus more on the design and continue to create new ones!!
Q. Is there any
difference with the collections available in Indonesia and the collections
offered abroad like in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand or America?
A. The collections
are the same, but off course we will have the complete collection feature in
our website. For stores in Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia, the items are
curated by their buyers and selected to suit their market.
Q. In your opinion,
what do you think about the growth of yoga-inspired jewelry designers, in this
case in yoga and wellness industry?
A. To be honest,
there are a lot of other designers producing a yoga-inspired jewelry in
Indonesia, especially in Jakarta and Bali. However, I see an opportunity where
most people are focusing on gemstones, I have chosen to focus on various silver
work and designs. I think it gives me more freedom to create as I have the
opportunity to expand more on the design through the combination of silvers,
gold vermeil, gemstone and also stories... every pieces of jewelry i designed
for Ahimsa has a story... it might not be easy to see or even to understand,
but i have the personal satisfaction of knowing the story even when no one else
knows. I think that it is still my homework to create a better communication
that will engage people's curiosity to learn about Ahimsa Jewelry.
Q. Is there any fun story
about the last roadshow that you want to share with us, maybe about the buyer’s
characteristics and so on?
A. Well, new places
always offer new experience and abundance of stories!! we learned that the
Australian customers are more willing to do their research. Most of the people
who came to our booth has been to our website and review the collection before
hand. Therefore it is very easy to communicate with them since they know what
they want! While in Hong Kong, the customers from Korea and the Mainland China
are the biggest buyers, with an additional perks of language barriers, and
therefore we learned that the best way to communicate is to use our
calculators. It is interesting to know that numbers can speak a thousand words.
Q. Where is your next
destination?
A. We are still
finalizing our events calendar for the second half of the year, starting to
move again around mid August. We plan to have more presence in Asia, off course,
and probably some festival in Europe as well. Ahimsa has been to the USA,
Australia and around Asia, so I think that Europe will be next. We'll see! ^_^.
You can always keep in touch with us through our website at
www.ahimsajewelry.com for our event calendars and also special promotions.
By: Johana Purba
