| | | | Joanne, the driving force behind ASIAN OPUS lived and worked in Indonesia, (where most of the products are made) for many years. Her passion in those days was conserving elephants which were the subject of her doctoral thesis and a first for the Sumatran subspecies of Asian Elephant (to find out more about Joannes elephant charity please click here ......). One of the first things she had to do was learn the language and as a result she speaks native Bahasa Indonesian with a broad south Sumatra accent.
Aside from picking up the language, Joanne made great lifelong friends who are very supportive of this business link between Ireland and Indonesia. These experiences and contacts were invaluable aids in teaching her how to get things done in Indonesia - a country famous for its crippling bureaucracy. |
| | | | Why the transition from elephants to Asian Opus? After many trips to beautiful Bali Joanne was completely enamoured with the carvings displayed with careless abandon throughout villages, temples and hotel resorts. |
| | | | Enquiries to bring a small number of items home as holiday mementos proved pointless as no supplier would guarantee the safe arrival of any stone sent outside of a full container load - simply put a crate of carvings left on a dock waiting to make up a full container load coming to Ireland would be subjected to lots of handling, extremes of weather and very little TLC. No problem, Joanne would save herself the hassle, buy them in Ireland and pay the premium for peace of mind that what she wanted would arrive intact. The only problem was nothing like these products could be found anywhere in Ireland. That as well as disappointment at the dismal range of carvings and stone products on offer in Irish garden centres and retailers prompted Joanne to take assess the need for a bespoke retailer of quality Asian stoneworks in the Irish market. The need was glaring with ASIAN OPUS being set up as a direct response to the lack of unique, high quality products for the home and garden on the Irish market. |
| | | Joannes' new passion facilitates her life in the West with her love for all things Asian. On her regular trips to Asia and Indonesia in particular, Joanne meets with suppliers, talks with the craftspeople and seeks out new and exclusive products for her discerning Irish customers. Not surprisingly one of Asian Opus's greatest strengths lies in its ability to spot an emerging trend before it becomes mainstream, ensuring that our products are exclusive, unique and not found on the high street! In fact many of the products Asian Opus carries have graced exclusive private gardens and 5 star resorts throughout the world.
We keep our prices very competitive by only buying direct from private family businesses and avoid unnecessary overheads. A selection of best-selling pieces is kept in stock and we continually order 'out of stock' products at the request of customers. During the gardening season, typically between April and September, we bring in regular shipments so customers can get their desired product without an excessive waiting period. A typical 'order to dispatch' time for a special order product is approximately 2-3 months - not bad when you consider its made-to-order and sails half way around the world before arriving on your doorstep!
We bring our products to home and garden shows around the country so please come and say hello there or visit us at our premises in Peterswell, south Galway. We hope you love our products and we are genuinely interested in your feedback - if you've seen something you love and can't find it in Ireland please give us a call to see if we might be able to help. Just phone 091 634999 (9am-5pm, Monday to Friday), email or write to us at ASIAN OPUS, Peterswell, Co. Galway.
Joanne Reilly
Email: info@asianopus.com
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