Ranee Artisan Gallery engages with local indigenous community and brings authentic handcrafts to consumers around the world
THE Ranee Artisan Gallery is an incidental gift shop at a hotel to cater to the tourists and guests, set up about a decade ago.
Datin Rosemaria Wong, the owner, creative and project director of The Ranee, said it initially started as a shelf of postcards at the hotel café, in support of the Sarawak School for Intellectually Disabled Children, Kuching (PERKATA).
“It was a small gift shop to cater to tourists and guests of the hotel when we opened our first hotel, The Ranee Boutique Suites, a 24-room luxury boutique hotel in the heart of Kuching City in 2012,” she told New Sarawak Tribune.
“The selection of cards soon morphed into a bigger selection of gift items, and before we knew it we had a burgeoning gift shop, supporting various charities, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and independent artisans of Sarawak,” she recalled.
The Ranee, she explained, was a title bestowed to the queen-consorts of the Rajahs of Sarawak who ruled from 1846 until 1946 and she thought the name was elegant, and aptly embodies a bespoke handcraft brand from Sarawak.
Furthermore, Wong said she was inspired by crafts produced under the Queen’s Foundation in Thailand in the early years – hence the reason for choosing the name for her artisan gallery.
The Ranee is also currently managing and operating the Borneo Cultures Museum (BCM) Gift Shop, offering various gift products in there made by over 100 local producers, crafters, artists, and charitable organisations.
“We, too, have collaborated with Hoan Gallery and the family of the late Raphael Scott-Ahbeng to showcase artworks by various Sarawak artists – past and present – and photographic art by Kelvin Chan,” she said, adding that there would be many new collaborative projects in the pipeline for exclusive gifts to BCM Gift Shop.
Rural craft development projects
The Ranee has been working on programmes focused on communities, where the projects were developed together with the Women’s Bureau (Biro Wanita) from the longhouses.
Wong would be identifying skills and studying the existing crafts from the local artisans. From that, she would redesign and rework a product, so basically deconstruct what they have and reconstruct them in a modern contemporary approach using the same traditional skills.
Apart from that, she was mindful to be all inclusive when planning a project, to benefit participants from varying standards of skill. “For example when we did our woven stool project, designs varied from a simple chequered pattern to traditional floral motifs. The beginner level weavers could also participate and weave the easier pattern, and that’s important to encourage and include them in.
“We recently also initiated an upcycle bottle weaving project. We collected discarded glass bottles from restaurants and bars around Kuching and sent them up to Rh. Merunjau.”
“The idea behind this craft development project is to encourage everyone to weave, including those who don’t know how to. The brief was to weave whatever pattern they like, as many different styles as they can,” she explained.
How did it start?
It all started when Wong visited a longhouse in Betong back in the 90s for the first time – where she witnessed the talent and weaving skill of the Ibans.
“Since then, it has never ceased to amaze me how skilled and talented the Ibans are. They make such beautiful crafts like mats, baskets, textiles (pua kumbu), beading (marik empang), etc, mostly for their own daily and ceremonial use.”
“There are so many other talented communities in Sarawak, the Penans have beautiful rattan mats and baskets, the Bidayuhs make lovely mats and baskets too, very different from the Penans, the Melanaus and their hats, the Kelabits and beads,” she said.
Wong, who pursued a creative degree at Central St. Martins College of Art and Design, London, where all the top fashion designers, including John Galliano and Alexander McQueen graduated from, had decided to embark on a pilot project in 2016, starting with the rural artisanal crafts by the Iban tribe from Betong.
She was aiming to challenge the community and transform handicrafts made by the rural crafters.“I started with the Ibans as I had the easiest access to them, but would love to work with the other communities too,” she said, adding that her husband is an Iban and his family originates from Layar, Betong.
Developing each product was an educational and training process, and normally required several rounds of developing and sampling, where she tried to design or create products that work within the community’s interest, ability or skill sets.
For each product, she said, they would make several trips to the longhouses; and they progress through production, where she constantly troubleshoots and refine their workmanship.
“I am a bit of a perfectionist, so I will keep pushing them until I get the results and quality I want. My team and I choose and co-ordinate the colours, but give our artisans a free hand in designing the patterns so they can inject individual artistic style to each piece.”
“I feel it is important to let the craft makers apply their own creativity, and in doing so inculcate a sense of pride and ownership, not just a manufacturing process,” she said.
“We use various types of natural materials in our crafting: rattan, bemban, bemban batu, resam, bamboo, etc, and encourage our weavers to harvest responsibly (take only what you need) and replant materials where possible. We also use other mediums like box straps, paper, and metal. It is important for the crafters to also evolve and experiment with modern materials,” she added.
In 2018, one of the longhouse communities attained the “Award of Excellence for Handicrafts” from the World Crafts Council for one of their craft products – a validation that given the right design guidance, commitment and opportunities, the Sarawak rural-made crafts can turn into world class recognised products.
Extra income between RM6,000 and RM10,000 per year
To date, there were four established longhouse communities who produce regularly for The Ranee.
“When I say “established”, it means at least 98 per cent of the products per order pass our quality control standards, and we are able to do repeat and new orders by way of issuing a “purchase order”, and the items are delivered with a proper invoice,” she explained.
“It’s not just about making crafts but getting the community to work together and understand the intricacies and components of running a business – commitment, quality control, on-time delivery, pricing and consistency,” she said.
Wong said they also continue to do research and sampling of products with many others while her team would work with any longhouse community that would be interested in participating in a craft development project.
She said those crafters that her team engaged with in Betong; were mostly pepper farmers, helping their husbands on the farm, or homebound mothers.
The crafting projects allowed them to make extra income, with some earning an extra RM6,000 to RM10,000 per year, depending on how much extra time they were willing to put in, as some weaving materials have to be harvested from deep in the jungles and processed.
In 2019, Wong also started up a community-based organisation, Jawatankuasa Agrokraft Borneo (JKAB), and a co-working space in Betong.
It acts as a co-ordinating body for the development and production of rural community products, organise study trips, participate in trade shows, provide workshop and training programmes, and ensure equal opportunities given to deserving artisans.
The team members from The Ranee would make regular visits to the communities to manage research and development, quality control, curation, packaging, marketing and promotions.
Hopes and expectations
Wong said the craft industry in Sarawak needs to be revived and there needs to be a rebranding campaign and more awareness about the local crafts, the process and reflection on its value.
“I really think that craft needs to be reintroduced into our education system, starting from primary schools, then secondary, at least here in the Sarawak syllabus, after all it is our cultural heritage,” said the mother-of-four.
All commercial, residential and public developments, she said, should have a percentage of Sarawak elements in its design style and content e.g. office blocks, malls, private hospitals.
Apart from that, public spaces like the airport, government hospitals, parks, among others, should also include Sarawak motifs, not necessarily in a traditional style but also in a modern contemporary fashion.
“All corporate gifts presented by the state government sector should be locally made, which I believe are practised by some departments already.”
“In Sarawak, there should be one day a week that could be made as a cultural dress day in the office, or at least include some sort of cultural element in the outfit,” she said.
She also suggested a tax incentive for supporting the creative industry or buying local arts and crafts.
“Lastly, we too need to innovate in the process of crafting, so that we are competitive with our ASEAN counterparts,” he added.
Other projects
Wong said the decision to move on to the crafting communities in Betong to create customised craft pieces in 2016, had led them on to projects with various interior designers, architects and other designers, as follows:
• Sculptural installations – “Forbidden Fruits” light installation at Rainforest Fringe Festival (2018) and Crafting Artistry” exhibition at Gallery Petronas, Kuala Lumpur (2019)
• Interior design projects:
I. Hock Seng Lee (HSL) “Semariang Aman 3” show house (2022)
II. Feature lamps for Borneo Cultures Museum Gift Shop (2022)
III. Feature lamps for ZOZO restaurant (2021)
IV. HSL “Convertible House” show house (2020)
V. Wall art for a penthouse in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore (2019 & 2020)
VI. Feature lamps for Secret Recipe (2018)
VII. Sarawak Convention Bureau’s reception counter (2018)
• Fashion – Ling Wu, Singapore luxury bag designer (2021)
Since 2012, The Ranee has worked with over 200 artisans, independent makers for retail products, training workshops, as well as research and development (R&D) programmes to create ongoing craft products.
