Sapu – An Artisan Group Upcycling Unwanted Materials into Contemporary Accessories

Sapu is a group of artists based in the Indonesian town of Salatiga. They are made up of a collective of creative people: designers, artists, craftsmen and recyclists. Moreover, the members are united by a respect for their natural environment. This is also shown in their desire to make use of the world’s abundant and unwanted man-made materials, transforming these into jewellery and accessories. 

Reclaimed Materials

Using tyre inner tubes, army tents, plastic bottles, and magazines, they are not fazed by any material. Instead, they see only the possibility of creating beautiful and stylish upcycled bags, jewellery and accessories.

Inspirational

Through Sapu’s work, they want to show people what can be achieved with unwanted and discarded materials. For that reason, they see the chance to inspire people to live a more sustainable way of life and to care for their own environment.  They also hope to inspire environmental change by changing the attitudes and behaviours of everyone who comes into contact with one of their creations.

Environmentalism

The group’s environmental ethos is evident in the quantity of material that they have been able to reuse. Thus, diverting ‘waste’ materials from landfill sites prevents potentially harmful environmental impacts and reduces the demand on the world’s natural resources. It is also apparent in the way in which they operate. For that reason, they source products from within a 20km radius of their workshop, thereby reducing their carbon footprint.

Collaboration

Paguro works with Sapu to come up with innovative and contemporary designs. Our aim is to create designs which showcase the group’s craftsmanship, while working with modern materials. Therefore, preserving traditional techniques which may otherwise be lost and rooting the products in the community in which they were created.

Quality

All of the products are finished by hand ensuring that the quality of every product is finished to the highest standard. Additionally, each product has an individuality and uniqueness that you won’t find with mass produced items, due to natural variations in the materials sourced.