Wardana

Ketut Wardana was born in 1980. All his family worked as wood carvers and as a consequence, he started learning to carve wood when he was very young. At the age of nine, he made his first pieces. I liked to make animal statues and then play with them, he recalls.

At the time, I went to school and also worked as a wood carver. I learned many things and often depicted animals like I did as a boy. But one day I decided that I wanted to do something different.

For Balinese people, family and relations are very important. I am very attached to all my family and I think that family and love are the most important things in the world today. So I decided to show this in my pieces, and this is how I started representing love in my wood carving.

After finishing school, Wardana decided to work by himself. In his pieces, he combines love with good quality wood carving for a different kind of design. Many of my clients are foreigners so I came up with the idea of making wine bottle holders, he says. Everywhere people like to drink a good glass of wine.