About Us

During 1980 through 1994 Art and Peg, while living in Balikpapan and Jakarta Indonesia, collected artifacts and bead work of Indonesia.  Throughout the 1990s, the Astaritas focused on beaded wedding embroidery pieces from South Sumatra. As their "day jobs" allow, they continue to work in the field, correlating information on physical elements, bead origins, and history, while learning about their ethnographic use through sources in Indonesia, Australia, Malaysia, the Netherlands, and the United States. 

Art has a Master of Science in Geology from Oklahoma State University. From 1975 through 1997, he had various positions as a petroleum geologist with Sun Oil Company in Texas, with Roy M. Huffington / Virginia Indonesia Company in Jakarta and as a Consultant with Union Texas in Houston. After the following 22 years, Art retired from working for the northeast affiliate of the national non-profit, Rural Community Assistance Partnership (www.rcap.org).  Art provided technical assistance to rural water and wastewater utilities. 

Peg has a Bachelor of Business Management from University of Texas. She has worked as a Landman for Sun Oil Company and as an Independent. For the past twenty years Peg has her own business as a ceramic potter. She has also published a phone book for several islands in Casco Bay, Maine (www.isldirectory.com/). 

This collection is proof that  ordinary people find extraordinary things.