Wholesale I'm so Jealous. - AW Gifts Europe - Giftware & Aromatherapy Supplier

Greetings from La Cala, Mijas

Yes, I'm still here in (mostly) sunny Spain, expecting to get battered by the aftereffects of storm Ciaran shortly. Actually, that is one of the reasons we are here, it was extreme weather last winter that caused a glass balustrade to collapse and damaged the decking around our Bali-inspired pool. So we finally have the builders in, to build a nice new solid wall, and replace the decking with indestructible tiles. Apparently October was the warmest on record in the world
and the fourth consecutive to beat that record. Climate change deniers can go take a running jump. Seriously humans stop fighting stupid wars and face up to this.

Looks like a big mess, but it will be beautiful soon.

Last week I was telling you about one of my first trips to India, and how I got hooked on visiting remote out of the way places to do business with the locals. If you missed it you can read about it here.

News from Tomas (our no.1 marketing and all-around wizard), he is still in Bali with Peter (from Slovakia) finalising work with the amazing AW-Advantage team. Our beach-side marketing office is making huge strides and already helping a number of clients find their marketing superpowers... But Tomas couldn't leave without sourcing and developing a few more artisan products from Indonesia. On his days off from the office he has been out with Ringo visiting our artisan suppliers and finding new ones. While that is a good thing - I'm actually a little jealous because that's my favourite job in all AW.

Tomas was in a small factory where skilled workers finish hand-carved Buddha statues with special process to produce an antique look. It involves a particular skill set, and only a few artisans can do it. Sadly they can only make a maximum of 100 statues per month. This is a common problem these days.

Even more frustratingly Bondhan (Ringo's assistant in Indonesia) was despatched to Java (a remote village) to find the source of a range of beautiful natural placemats and runners that we had seen. This is Bondhan's home turf, and he speaks the local language so was able to locate the artisan village that specialises in these. The other day, we had a three ways WA meeting, Bondhan in Java, Tomas in Bali and me in Spain. To finalise a selection of placemats. Water Hyacinth, Seagrass and scented Vertver. The village is basically just a street of small workshops with ladies and gents working on ancient looms weaving away. Just the sort of place I love to visit.

Sadly Bondhan told me that in all the workshops he didn't see a single young person doing this job. And he was told that young people don't want to do it, naturally, they want good jobs in the city. Maybe in a digital marketing job in an office by a surfing beach... it's a story we hear all the time. I have told you this story before, it's a big problem with a shrinking pool of artisans.. but maybe a solution is forming in my mind.

So today in Bali is the last day for Tomas and Peter, they are leaving to return to Europe. Our young team will be (kind of) on their own, although I'm sure they will thrive. Debbie our office manager is a good mother to them all. Anyway, they threw a surprise leaving party for them both.. as I write this it's closing time on Friday afternoon in Bali, and Tomas and Peter are making their emotional farewells.

Flowers and personalised "Thank You" sashes...

Now I'm even more jealous because all I get is a hug.. seriously though they are delightful people and a joy to be around.
Hopefully, I will see them soon and be visiting remote villages and doing deals again... actually, I'm making plans for India and beyond now.

But Christmas is coming and a lot of work this end, including making plans for next year.
It all goes in the distribution centres... Crazy in Slovakia, Manic in Spain and Bedlam in Sheffield...
And lots of new exotic and beautiful products coming online almost every day. Check out the deals below.

Hope the storms and flooding have passed you by.. have a lovely week.
Thank you so much for your support.

David