by Putra - 06 Nov 2006 @ 3:38 am · Category Shopping in Bali
Paintings are sold in souvenir stalls, art markets, cooperative galleries, and pushed by hawkers on foot everywhere you turn. Finding good paintings, however, is hard work. It helps to understand that artists are now working mostly for a European market and the tourists’ demand for paintings “suitable for framing” has changed the technique and content of their painting style.
Balinese artists only started to sign their paintings when Westerners started to ask them to about 50 years ago. Now almost all paintings are signed with the artist’s name and the village where he or she lives.
Producing copies is one of the main occupations of the artist or his or her assistants. If a particular painting sells well, umpteen copies are spawned. This explains why all over the island you’ll find similar paintings portraying hackneyed tourist cliches of a tropical paradise-glowing sunset, smoking volcanoes, sloe-eyed nymphs bathing. The worst, sold by peddlers on Kuta Beach, possess all the banality of velvet paintings in cocktail lounges.
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by Putra - 10 Oct 2006 @ 3:45 am · Category Shopping in Bali
The most important thing to remember when buying crafts is to take your time. It doesn’t take long to learn to distinguish quality. Leisurely browsing isn’t always possible if you take part in guided tours because the bus stops at preselected showrooms and galleries, but if you’re by yourself, you have all the time in the world.
All art shops accept traveler’s checks and major currencies, most accept credit cards, and some even take American Express. A surcharge of five percent is added to your bill if you use a credit card. Rate of exchange offered by shops for traveler’s checks is invariably worse than that given by moneychangers.
Much shopping on Bali still entails bargaining, a traditional and very acceptable way of doing business. Much to the relief of many Westerners, you may not bargain in fixed price shops. How can you tell a fixed-price shop? If it’s a hotel gift shop, it’s fixed price. And, generally speaking, if it’s an a/c store with glass doors and/or windows and the wares have price tags, it’s fixed price. But even if there’s a sign reading Harga Pasti (fixed price) or “Sorry-Fixed but very Reasonable Price,” and the clerk says all prices are fixed, always give it a try. Cut the asked price in half, then you may end up with a 25% discount. This technique used to work better but now the Balinese have responded by quadrupling their prices to ensure adequate profits.
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