Celuk is 4 km from Batubulan and 12 km from Denpasar, supports large numbers of gold and silversmiths who sell their jewellery from counteless shops and showrooms along the road. Much of the work is inferior, although there are some shops selling slightly better quality jewellery; for example, Runa, Dede’s, Jl Grianyar 18 and Banjar Telabah. It is worth bargaining in these shops. Another 4 km north from Celuk is another woodcarving village, Batuan, A range of products are on sale though the artists have a particular reputation for the quality of their carved wood panels.
You can request to see the workshop – usually a small room or area in the back with five to 20 workers, some not even in their teens. The intricacy and details they can obtain with simple and tools is amazing. Craftsmen use a tree stump with a protruding metal spike for an anvil, a bamboo stem to catch the filings, and a manually operated gas pump for heat. As with most Balinese crafts, smithing is largely an hereditary art.
Be sure not to miss the shops on the road just north and parallel to the main road, as many fine jewelers dwell here off the beaten track. Just past most of the art shops on the left is an asphalt road flanked by two small stone statues which will take you to the pack roads of Celuk and Batuan.
