Our Story
We are Tony and Mell Sheppard owners of Bali Batik at Home and lovers of travel. Our story with Batik starts in the early 70s, when my (Mell’s) mum took me to Bali as a small child and we brought back among other gorgeous items a Batik sarong.
I loved the handmade intricacy and colours of the design and the feeling it had when I’d dress up in it. Decades later while travelling through Bali, Indonesia, Tony and I met a lovely family who specialised in creating beautiful products from repurposed vintage Batik sarongs and instantly “Bali Batik at Home” was born! We loved that each product had already lived a life as an individuals personal sarong that has been worn on a daily basis and now repurposed for you to love and enjoy.
A wonderful working collaboration started and has grown to include a total of 3 Balinese families that we now call our friends and work with to bring the beauty of both vintage and new Batik along with vintage Ikat from Flores to Australian shores in the form of quality homewares, clothing, and apparel.
You can follow us @balibatikathome, and find us and our batik products us at local markets around the Gold Coast and Northern NSW.
~ Tony has been living with Early Onset Frontotemporal Dementia since 2014 and we are both proud to support and participate in scientific research on an annual basis at The Brain and Mind Institute in Sydney with the research team at Frontiers. Feel free to talk to us about our journey with Frontotemporal Dementia we are happy and open to discuss our experience and support you in yours if your life is also affected.
We'd like to thank our beautiful family who have supported us in this adventure with their love and support and all our lovely customers who have also been encouraging and allowed us to share their photos here and on Instagram and Facebook.