I’m home again after visiting a Thailand most of you will never see.
I’ve walked through forests of fallen logs and explored massive factories filled with people making the things we buy.
I’ve photographed workshops, my ears bursting with the zzzzzzZZZZZZZ of chainsaws from which furniture takes it’s shape, and I’ve sat in suppliers’ offices and watched as everyone tap-tap-tapped away on calculators, searching for numbers on which they could agree.
It was a crash course in Artemano, behind the scenes.
I know now what it means to run a business that depends on one continent to feed the appetites of another, and to do so by working with individuals, not corporations, with people, not bureaucracies. I get it now – the magic that Artemano’s founders always speak of.
It’s not just in the Artemano showrooms here in Canada, or in the furniture that injects your home with that exotic autre part. There is magic in everything that has to happen before you walk into one of their stores - it’s not a byproduct of what they do, it’s an essential ingredient to what they do.
Magic is…
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Travelling 12,282km just to look every one of your suppliers in the eye to ensure that he understands and cares about what Artemano stands for.
Magic is…
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Trusting your supplier’s word even though you speak different languages – and having your trust rewarded.
Magic is…
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Knowing the name and life story of each one of your suppliers and their families.
Magic is…
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Starting the day with tough negotiations, and ending it with a shared vision of what the future will bring.
Magic is…
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Choosing suppliers not just for the quality of their product, but also for the quality of their personality, and working only with those who treat their employees with respect.
Magic is…
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Working with the best, whether it’s the guy who operates from a tarp in the jungle, or the man who owns the most sophisticated factory in the region.
Magic is…
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Choosing each and every log of wood by hand under a blazing hot sun in 50% humidity, and keeping your cool.
Magic is…
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Letting the wood’s shape and grain decide what it will become.
Magic is…
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Receiving a container of merchandise 5 months later, and knowing exactly where each piece came from.
Magic is…
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Getting on a plane again 3 months later to do it all over again - and not minding at all.
Simply put, it takes magic to create magic.
All images copyright Conteska Photography