Furniture just like anything else in the world, the value is often set by the wrong person. You go to an antique dealer they are going to set the value very low on any piece built in the last few years. They do not consider the hard work or what went into the building of it. All they consider is the age and whether the piece was built by some famous historical company or not. You go to a retailer or an insurance adjuster and they have a percentage discount given per year of wear and tear on the furniture. But few people really look at the story behind the piece if it does not fit in their category. There really is no category that covers hand-crafted furniture.
Furniture made in Indonesia is some of the cheapest in the world. No one yet recognizes it for what it is. I am going to take you through step by step the process of how furniture is built here.
Plantation Wood
First, almost all of the wood used for furniture in Indonesia comes from government plantations. Whether it is Mahogany or Teak someone had to cut the tree recently. The government plantations in Indonesia were established by the Dutch. It is a business that has been ongoing for hundreds of years now. They cut trees at a rate slower than the harvest so there is always a new tree coming to replace the one that has been cut. Many people do not know this but Teak which is most plentiful in Indonesia worldwide but was brought in by the dutch from India as a harvest crop 50 years ago.
Sawmill
Once an order for furniture is placed the furniture manufacturer purchases logs, cuts and processes the wood into planks to be dried. The first step is cutting the wood into slabs within millimeters of the final size the wood needs to be for whatever use such as a frame or panel. Everything here is still done similar to how it was done in the colonial days of the United States.
Drying Wood
There is a mixture of methods for drying the wood. Your better factories will use an oven to dry the wood until it is a moisture content of 10 to 12%. Most exporters of furniture know this has to be done from experience and will not take shortcuts. For furniture sold to the Indonesian market, it is more often done by a more tradtional means. The more traditional way is to stand the wood outside in the sun until it feels dry or until they need it, whichever comes first. In many cases, the latter as no one in Indonesia is making enough money from the business to maintain a stockpile of raw lumber.
Processing The Lumber
After the wood has been dried it is then taken to a worker who is given a drawing to follow. He completes the process of prepping the lumber to the exact size needed for components needed. This is done using hand saws, handheld planers, and a lot of hard work and sweat. Each component is slowly cut from the raw lumber. in detail. This process means you will never get two identical pieces of furniture. Each piece of furniture is in its own way is a one-of-a-kind unrecognized piece of art.
Hand Carvings
Jepara Indonesia is famous worldwide for its unique hand carvings. If parts of the furniture need carvings it is most often done before assembly.
Furniture Assembly
Once all the components are cut and prepared and tested for fit they are glued together using an epoxy resin. The furniture is held in large vice clamps until the glue has set.
Sanding
The next step before finishing the furniture has to be finely sanded. This is most often done by women but not always. The furniture has to be sanded by hand until it is polished smooth.
Finishing
Once the furniture has been sanded it is sent to a finishing booth. This is where it will get multiple payers of coating starting with a sanding sealer.