Jess Boubie Craft

Our Story

Jess Boubie Craft started in 2017, but the real beginning was much earlier. Jassica Lintanga grew up in the Tobilung community, where wearing brass has always been a symbol of pride. A heavy lungkaki — the brass anklet — marks a woman as diligent and capable. The heavier it is, the better.

Jess learned that if she wanted something, she had to make it herself. That lesson never left her. She started hammering brass to keep her hands busy, to quiet the noise in her head. The sound of the hammer became something she needed.

Her first piece was Tinutuk & Rinuta — a heartbroken bracelet series. It was simple, but it was honest. She made it to let something out. That is still how she works: each design carries a feeling first, a pattern second.

Today, Jess draws motifs from Dusun Liwan, Dusun Tobilung, and Murut traditions. Each pattern means something specific. She does not mass-produce. She does not take rush orders. What she lists is what she has made, slowly, by hand.

We say made by us because the business side — orders, documentation, the parts Jess cannot split her focus for — is handled by close collaborators who have been with her since the beginning. The hammering is hers. The running of things is shared.

Jess hopes every family will keep brass pieces to pass down. The artisans who know this craft are fewer every year. If not now, when?