How it's made

Crafts & Techniques

Living craft traditions from Solomon Islands — each with its own materials, tools, and stories.

Pandanus Weaving

Traditionally in Melanesian culture, men learn to carve and women learn to weave. For some women, weaving is a way of life and a part of their identity. Weavers adapt traditional materials and techniques to create modern styles — from shoulder bags withpatterns from Rennell and Bellona Province, to clutch purses and cross-body bags with zips and synthetic dyes.

Wood Carving

Hand-carved wooden bowls with pearl shell and/or wood inlay design are polished and sealed. These bowls can be used to serve food, store small items like jewellery and keys, and can be cleaned with a damp cloth. Carvers also fashion marine animals like dolphins, seahorses and sharks as ornaments. Each piece is unique, shaped by the carver's skill and the natural grain of the wood.

Shell money jewellery

Jewellery that is made by grinding sea shells into small discs, drilling a hole in the discs and then threading them in a pattern. Both men and women wear shell-money jewellery, also known as Tafuliae, in Solomon Islands.

Bush-twine

A strong cord is made from the leaves of the asa vine and this is then dyed with natural pigments and tightly woven to make sturdy trays or baskets. Bush-twine can also be knotted to make a bag known as a kusa, or a bilum in PNG.

Every technique has a maker

Read the stories of the weavers, carvers, and jewellers who keep these traditions alive.

Meet the makers Browse the catalogue