Art, Paintings & Handicrafts

Gianyar, 20 min from Ubud

The island's silversmithing village. Family workshops line the main road — you can watch granulation and filigree work being done at the bench and buy direct. Most studios also take custom orders and repairs, and many run half-day make-your-own-ring classes.

Between Ubud and Sukawati

Generations of carvers working hibiscus, crocodile wood, suar and teak — masks, Garuda figures, doors and large sculptural pieces. Bigger galleries here arrange crating and international shipping.

North of Ubud

The 'handicraft road' — kilometres of open-front workshops selling carved panels, wooden bowls, teak furniture, rattan, wind chimes and decorative pieces at wholesale prices. Pakudui specialises in Garuda carvings.

On the Denpasar–Gianyar road

Paras sandstone and volcanic stone statues, temple gates and garden pieces. Heavy items are shipped by sea; ask for a crated FOB price.

Gianyar

Batuan is home to the dense, dark, ink-detailed Batuan style; Sukawati is where the wholesale art market sits. Painters' home studios around both villages sell directly and are usually happy to show work in progress.

Klungkung, east Bali

The last village painting in the classical wayang style on cloth with natural pigments. Small family studios, and the Kertha Gosa pavilion in Klungkung shows the ceiling paintings the style is known for.

Karangasem, east Bali

One of only a handful of places on earth making double-ikat gringsing cloth — a single piece can take years, and prices reflect that. Also known for ata basketry and lontar palm-leaf engraving.

Karangasem

Hand-loom weaving villages in the rice terraces. Watch backstrap and pedal looms working, and buy songket (silver/gold thread) and endek by the metre.

Ubud centre

The oldest art museum in Bali. The best single place to learn the schools — Pita Maha, Ubud, Batuan, Young Artists — before you spend money on a painting.

Sanggingan, Ubud

Strong Balinese and expat-in-Bali collection (Lempad, Spies, Bonnet, Blanco, Arie Smit) laid out by style, with a shop.

Pengosekan, Ubud

Museum plus a working cultural centre — it also runs painting, batik, woodcarving, gamelan and dance classes for visitors.

Mas

Thousands of masks and wayang puppets from across Asia in restored joglos. Free entry, and useful context before you buy a mask.

Ubud

Contemporary Indonesian painting and sculpture, museum-standard hanging, fixed prices.

Ubud & Seminyak

Contemporary galleries and design shops for modern work, prints and photography — where to look if the traditional styles are not your taste.

Sukawati, Gianyar

The wholesale market — paintings, sarongs, baskets, carvings, beads. Two buildings, open early morning to late afternoon. Bring cash and bargain hard.

Opposite Puri Saren, Ubud

Convenient and touristy. Best early morning before the tour buses. Similar stock to Sukawati at higher opening prices.

Next to Sukawati

Quieter alternative to Sukawati with the same goods and slightly calmer bargaining.

Denpasar, by the river

Local-facing market over several floors — ceremony goods, textiles, baskets, silver. Very few tourists, very low prices.

Canggu

Weekend markets with macrame, ceramics, leather, jewellery and prints from local makers and expat designers.

Karangasem, east Bali

The only village in Indonesia — and one of three places on earth — that makes geringsing double ikat, where both warp and weft are tied and dyed before weaving. A single cloth can take two to five years. Weavers work in the open verandahs along the village lanes and will show you the tying and the natural dye pots. Genuine pieces run into the millions of rupiah; anything cheap is a printed copy.

Karangasem

Green valley village full of small home looms weaving songket — silk or cotton with supplementary gold and silver thread. You can walk in, watch the treadle looms and buy directly from the family that made the cloth. Many houses also run half-day weaving lessons.

Gianyar town

Endek is Bali's weft-ikat everyday cloth, now protected and required as office and school wear across the island. Several factory-scale workshops on the Gianyar road run free walk-through tours of the tying, dyeing and weaving floors, with a shop at the end selling by the metre.

Jalan Kajeng, Ubud

A fair-trade gallery and textile foundation working with weavers across Indonesia. Everything is natural-dyed, documented and priced to pay the maker properly. They run textile appreciation classes and a study collection — the single best hour to spend before buying any serious cloth.

Ubud, Batubulan

Hand-drawn batik tulis is applied with a canting wax pen, one line at a time; batik cap is stamped with copper blocks; printed 'batik' is neither. Workshops in Ubud and along the Batubulan road demonstrate all three and run day classes where you wax, dye and take home your own panel.

Klungkung

The island's serious cloth market. Endek, songket, batik and ceremonial fabrics sold by the metre and by the piece, mostly to Balinese buyers. Prices are a fraction of Seminyak boutiques and the range is far wider. Go in the morning, take cash.

Gianyar

Where most visitors buy their first sarong. Fine for a printed rayon beach sarong at IDR 50k–100k after bargaining — just do not believe the 'hand-made batik' label at that price.

Around Ubud and east Bali

Indigo, morinda root, mahogany bark and turmeric dye gardens attached to weaving cooperatives. Tours show the fermentation vats and the difference between a natural indigo that ages beautifully and a synthetic one that runs in the first wash.

Jalan Sulawesi, Denpasar

Three blocks of fabric shops — silks, brocades, songket, lace and ceremonial cloth — where Balinese families buy for weddings and temple days. Chaotic, cheap, air-conditioned inside, and the tailors nearby will make something up in a couple of days.

Studio Perak (Ubud) and Chez Monique (Celuk) are the long-running names, and dozens of Celuk workshops teach the same thing. You sketch a design, saw, solder, file and polish, and keep the piece — usually a ring or pendant. Expect around 3–4 hours and roughly IDR 400,000–800,000 including a set weight of silver; extra silver or gold is charged by the gram.

ARMA and Nirvana Batik & Painting in Ubud both run classes with a Balinese teacher, plus many home studios in Batuan and Penestanan. You work in the traditional style — pencil under-drawing, ink outline, layered acrylic or natural pigment washes. Typically IDR 350,000–700,000 with materials and canvas to take home.

Wax-resist work with a tjanting tool and indigo or synthetic dyes. Widya's Batik and Nirvana in Ubud, plus most cultural centres. Full-day classes finish with a dyed and boiled-off panel or sarong; IDR 400,000–900,000.

Carvers in Mas and around Ubud teach chisel work on a small relief panel or mask blank. Slow, quiet, surprisingly hard on the hands. IDR 350,000–700,000.

Canggu, Ubud and Uluwatu studios run knotting classes for wall hangings, plant hangers and bags, usually in small groups with cotton rope supplied. IDR 250,000–600,000. Rattan and ata basket weaving classes run in Sidemen and Tenganan.

Bali's leather trade is centred on Seminyak (Jalan Raya Seminyak and Kayu Aya) and Kuta, where workshops make bags, belts, sandals and jackets to measure in a few days. Several Canggu and Ubud studios now teach cutting, stitching and tooling — you leave with a card holder, belt or small bag. IDR 400,000–900,000.

Gaya Ceramic (Sayan) runs serious multi-day courses; Kevala and small Canggu studios do drop-in wheel-throwing sessions. Fired pieces need collecting or shipping 2–3 weeks later — plan around your flight.

Canang sari and penjor making, taught in villages and by many Ubud homestays. Cheap, often free with a homestay, and the best short introduction to why craft and daily ritual are the same thing here.

• Market opening prices are usually 3–4x the real price. Counter at about a third, settle near half, and stay friendly — walking away politely is the strongest move you have.
• Fixed-price galleries and studio workshops are not bargaining venues. Ask for a discount on multiples instead.
• Cash in rupiah gets better prices than card. Most village workshops have no card machine.
• The first sale of the day (penglaris) is considered lucky — early shoppers get better prices.

• Balinese silver is normally 925 sterling and stamped. Ask to see the stamp and weigh the piece — reputable Celuk shops price by gram plus workmanship.
• 'Silver-plated' or 'alpaca' is nickel alloy, not silver. It should cost a fraction of the price.
• Gold is sold by karat and gram against the daily gold price; get the weight and karat written on the receipt.
• Mass-produced 'Balinese' carvings and paintings are often imported or machine-made. A hand-carved piece shows tool marks and slight asymmetry; a hand-painted one shows brush texture, not a printed dot pattern.

• Large carvings, furniture and stone go by sea freight — galleries in Mas, Tegallalang and Batubulan arrange crating and paperwork routinely. Allow 6–10 weeks.
• Small pieces go by courier or in your luggage. Roll unframed canvases in a tube rather than folding them.
• Ask about your own country's import duty and quarantine rules before shipping timber — untreated wood is restricted into Australia and New Zealand.

• Antiques, temple pieces and anything genuinely old may need an export permit — a shop that shrugs at the question is a shop to leave.
• Ivory, turtle shell, coral, and products from protected species are illegal to buy and to carry home.
• Ceremonial krisses and masks used in ritual are sometimes sold when they should not be. Buy new pieces made for sale instead.