Lavagirl displays products at expo

By Memo Hauke
MAKU Gifts, branded as Lavagirl products, is owned by Annette Sete from East Sepik but lives in East New Britain with her family.
Her sales agent Robyn Chan is based in Port Moresby and is displaying the products at the Digiciel PNG Women In Business expo.
“Sete is married to my brother. I help run her business by selling her products here and distribute to other provinces, especially through special orders,” she said.
“She resides in East New Britain and produces her arts and crafts and sends them to Port Moresby.”
Products include ear rings made from coconut husks, bush ropes and sea shells.
“We also have hair pins made from coconut husks added with a little bit of paint to give it colour,” she said.
“We also have our clothing designs made in East New Britain as well. Our new pieces of clothing have been a signature piece for the PNG Fashion Week.”
They do the screen printings themselves.
The East Sepik dress with crocodile designs is selling at K120. The Tabu Kina shell dress is going for K200.
“We have a whole range of Pukpuk collections that have crocodile features and designed in blue, green, grey and red. We have them in corporate wear products as well,” she said.
“The Tabu Kina shell is still used today in our culture for bride price ceremonies and special occasions.”
Sete has a workshop underneath the family home and recycles all dried coconut to use.
“Sete is the designer that comes up with ideas and formulates what needs to be placed either on the fabric or the ear rings designs,” she said.
“Our cultural designs are very unique and we like to produce our own designs and let our own people buy from us. We have our Facebook page that people can go online and place their orders so we can deliver to them.”
The expo will end on Sunday.