Before Covid restrictions made international travelling nearly impossible I used to visit Bali regularly. For pleasure but also because it's a great place to source all kinds of beautiful art, furniture, textiles, and as I discovered - terrazzo baths and basins.
I found one small factory that was actually owned and operated by a wonderful lady. I instantly connected with her because we were both women in business in a male dominated industry. Astin was her name and she was very kind to show me around her small factory where she had a team of people creating beautiful Bathtubs and Basin using the ancient method known as Terrazzo.
Here are some pictures of the Terrazzo workshop and me looking at the different styles of stones they use and the different shaped baths they had made for other customers.
Terrazzo I believe comes from ancient Egypt (I checked on Wikipedia), but the Terrazzo that we all know these days is from Italy. Its a method of combing chips or rock, marble, different stones and even coloured glass with a base mortar and a colouring agent or dye, then using a mould to create the required shape and after polishing it to a beautiful glossy finish.
These pictures are off the polishing process and also adding the dye to the mix before moulding.
I had an idea to try importing unique bathtubs to sell at my showroom and also to put into client's homes when they asked me to design bathrooms. They are of course very heavy and also quite fragile so it was serious undertaking. After much decision making and sketching, experimenting with different shapes and colours and materials we eventually had a container of bathtubs arrive.
Here are some designs that I created and my team used autocad to create 3d renders to show to our clients to see how they were received....
Here are three on display in my office.
I was so happy to have unique baths that were designed by me. There is no company in Thailand that can make them as perfectly as Astin, the businesswoman from Bali. I was also very happy to again be working with a small family owned operation rather than buying from a faceless, enormous factory in China which is basically the next option. I immediately started putting the baths in different projects. Here are some pictures of my bathtubs in different bathrooms here in Phuket.
I love designing things. And I love working with local people that are as passionate about design as I am. After multiple trips to Bali and all the stress of getting the baths here in one piece - I think I deserved a glass of wine. Thanks for reading and I hope you like my baths!
