PRESERVE OUR HANDICRAFTS: NAOMI TOZAKA
Carved dolphin bowl with lid. Photo credit: langis.co.nz
Solomon Islands has a unique quality of local handicrafts that we must preserve, says the owner of the local handicraft shop Nautilus Books and Gifts Naomi Tozaka.
Ms. Tozaka is the winner of the Solomon Islands Women in Business Association’s Business Woman of the year.
Early this year she was funded by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) to represent Solomon Islands in the 2016 Artisan Resources Tradeshow in New York, United States.
It was great exposure for Naomi as she reported seeing crafts produced by machines in mass quantity and in a very short time.
Despite that, she believes the quality of Solomon Islands’ handicrafts produced manually from local resources has its own unique quality.
“For us, it takes the time to process our crafts compared to them who use machines, so that’s how I see it but we can produce quality wood crafts. Though it is handmade our quality is very good.”
Ms. Naomi plans to expand her local handicraft business overseas.