Kota Kinabalu: Artisan cum ultra-marathoner Jassica Lintanga, who handcrafts traditional brass jewellery and accessories, said she faced a similar wall when she started in 2018.
Materials were difficult to source, sales were slow and the work did not gain traction until the pandemic pushed her onto social media.
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“During the pandemic I kind of blew up online and that was when I started getting sales,” she said.
But the surge exposed a persistent problem. Because she produces in small volumes, her prices cannot compete with mass-produced alternatives sold on platforms such as Shopee.
“The gap puts off local buyers who see the price difference but not the craft behind it.
“When I sell my work in Sabah, it does not always get a good response because people probably think it is expensive,” Jassica said at a forum organised by Daily Express.
“Why buy from Jass when you can get something cheaper on Shopee? That gap in price is the real challenge.”
She said she understood the logic behind that thinking, but it remained the central obstacle for artisans working with traditional methods and materials.
On the policy question, Jassica echoed Velvet’s point about paperwork, admitting that navigating grant applications had been a persistent struggle in her eight years in the craft.
What she said she needed most was a shared physical space for artisans, equipped with tools and facilities that individual craftspeople could not afford on their own, so they could produce at greater volume and bring in a new generation of practitioners.
“To produce something we can call premium, we need the right equipment,” she said. “Young people are already reluctant to enter the craft, saying it is difficult and the returns are uncertain. Without structured support and accessible training, these skills risk dying out.”
