AW Artisan Wholesale Giftware

Greetings from Spain... Yes, I'm back home for a while. Last week I was telling you about our beautiful Slovakia warehouse and all those Buddhas we have there, creating a calm and serene working environment. If you missed it, you can catch up here . It was amazing working with the Slovakian team.. so organised and efficient. Something about Eastern European folk is so good at finding the best way to have a smooth workflow. Well done, team! Here me with the Buddha in the outdoor relax zone we have. On Wednesday, I left Tomas and Raul working on the new dropshipping website (update below) and took an early morning taxi from Trnava, Slovakia to Vienna Airport. More efficient stuff.. I'm so impressed with the stress-free check-in experience. No people, just scan your boarding card to get a luggage label, take luggage to the belt, here is the weight shown, scan the luggage tag and boarding card again .. And my luggage is gone. So quick, sweet and easy. All the airlines...

Greetings from Trnova, Slovakia. Yes, I'm in our Eastern Europe distribution warehouse.. Our big beautiful (Buddha) warehouse. On Wednesday afternoon, Tomas, Raul (the IT wizard), and me took an Uber to Leeds Bradford airport and boarded a packed and rowdy Ryanair flight to Bratislava. When we landed, all the Slovaks clapped and cheered, have you experienced that? I think only Slovak and Czech people do that.  Last week, I was telling you about sinkholes in Bali and our new arrivals. If you missed it, you can catch up here . Regular readers will know about our Trnova adventures. This is Tomas's home town, and after Brexit happened and we realised that selling into Europe to independent gift shops was just not going to work well, so opened a warehouse quickly here.. it has been wildly successful, and a few years ago we moved to a big, beautiful new warehouse - 6000 pallet spaces.  We wanted to make an amazing space that our team could enjoy working in.. Tomas and Erika (and te...

Greetings from heatwave Sheffield. I hope you are finding time to enjoy the beautiful weather here in the UK.. I'm so lucky to be here at this time.. but so busy. It's been a crazy - mad crazy week. The main focus has been the launch of the new big beautiful dropshipping website .. full honest update below. Last week I was telling you about how we almost lost our shipment of Full Moon Singing Bowls from Nepal.. and how our man James tracked them down and recovered them. If you missed it you can catch up here .. We are so happy to get them back, our new social media girl Holly.. enthusiastically got into the world of Singing Bowls (including the Full Moon Bowls).. and made an info YouTube video for your enlightenment, entertainment and inspiration...   actually Singing Bowls are booming (pun intended ) business.. lovers of singing bowls - that includes me.. are obsessed with them.. will pay big money for the more exotic bowls and spend hours practicing to make the spine...

Greetings from Ancient Wisdom HQ.. Sheffield It's all happening this week, and a bit of drama as we almost lost our Full Moon Bowls. Last week I was telling you about the Lokta paper that just arrived, and how the new Dropshipping website is launching.. If you missed it you can catch up here . It's July already.. I can't believe how fast this year is flying by.. and on the 1st of July (that was Tuesday), we welcomed a new team member.. Holly.. who is our new social media manager. These days a very important job. Holly is a keen yoga enthusiast and instructor, so already halfway an Ancient Wisdom team member. An Indian shipment of GemstoneTree Gardens - some with Yoga figures just arrived.. so it seemed a good fit for Holly to make her first social media post about this collection. So a BIG welcome to Holly, if you have time please check out the above YouTube and send Holly some encouragement, feedback or just say Hi.. in the comments.. Thank you   and you might...

Greetings from AW HQ - UK I'm in the UK, in Sheffield, at the heart of AW.  Tomas is here, Raul (the IT wizard) has flown in from KL, I'm here. Working on something amazing.. It's all happening here; we are working 24/7 on the new Dropshipping website. Which will be launched very soon. I'm hoping it will be a game changer for YOU!   (more details below) Last week I was telling you about my short time in Spain at home, and our guy in Indonesia stuck in Java.. if you missed it, you can catch up here . Well, it's all happening here.. and I quickly got involved with Rodrigo and the team.. we already made a "Can you sell this? Video.. about the Indian Rag Rugs .. did you see it? Update from Indonesia. Our man Bondhan went to Java to load another container of the Big Statues (they are selling faster than we can ship them) - they are good but very complicated because the only way to ship them cost effectively is by filling the void space around the statues with small,...

Greetings from Spain, Hope you guys are doing well and enjoying the weather. For once, it's HOTTER in the UK than Spain. Enjoy! Last week I was telling you about my journey from Indonesia to Spain, Father's day and our summer BBQ in the UK.. If you missed it, you can catch up here. Sadly I don't have much time in Spain. Shortly, I'm travelling again.. I'll miss the sunrise in Spain. As I sit down to type this, it's 7am and this is the view.. I love my house in Spain, but never get much time to stay here.. June here is a time of long, warm days (not as warm as the UK) and some lively local festivals. Last weekend I went along to the Marbella feria and had a wander around.. It didn't seem so busy. Spain seems to be getting its knickers in a twist about over-tourism with demonstrations everywhere.. So, yes there is a delicate balance between visitors and community. But it's more complicated than blaming tourists for everything. I did get time to t...

Greetings from Spain, Hope you had a great Father's Day weekend! Hi guys, hope you are doing well. Yes, I'm back in Europe after 6 months of travelling. At my home in La Cala de Mijas. It's kind of strange because it doesn't seem that long ago I was here, and also so much has happened that it simultaneously seems like years. Last week I was telling you about our updates that are coming from the IT development in Bali and my thoughts on AI.. If you missed it you can catch up here . I took a Turkish Airways flight from Bali to Istanbul business class, but I already experienced culture shock with grumpy staff who snatched my ticket, no eye contact, and no real human interaction. Even on the most budget Indian or Indonesian Airlines nothing but friendly, gracious contact. But the food is nice and they give you a romantic (fake) candle when you are served food. Then a short change over in Istanbul to Malaga Spain.. 4 hours later, in the airport we landed with a...