Flowers have long been used to express emotions, with each carrying its own unique meaning. Whether it’s a red rose symbolizing passionate love, a white daisy representing innocence, or a yellow sunflower conveying joy. Flowers deliver messages that couldn’t be spoken aloud, speaking a language that words often cannot capture. They are the perfect medium to express one's true intention and communicate what lies in the heart, turning emotions into a beautiful living art form.
Founded by two loving sisters, Marsha and Smitha, Jeumpa Floral Studio is where art meets floristry. Their deep-rooted love for flowers was inspired by their mother who always decorated their home with flowers. The sisters then created Jeumpa in 2020 during the pandemic and decided to leave their old jobs to focus on fulfilling their passion in the industry. They took online classes and completed a course abroad to learn floristry. However, they learned the most through their mother’s regular contact in the flower market, who introduced and showed them on the field what the industry is truly like. After two years starting Jeumpa from their own home garage, they now run their business in their own floral studio. With their mother as an inspiration and constant support, they told us how much her opinion means to them. “Mom is our inspiration and our biggest critic,” they shared.
Jeumpa Floral Studio is known for its floral design, which elegantly blends traditional Indonesian aesthetics with contemporary elements. They are highly inspired by Indonesian culture because of the strong Javanese tradition that flows in their family. Jeumpa’s distinctive floral design came from their own observation, seeing the industry dominated by either European floral style or traditional Indonesian designs.
Jeumpa came with their own style and beautifully marries Indonesia’s unique aesthetic with contemporary elements. The unique blend reflects the sisters' different backgrounds, with Smitha in finance and Marsha in Interior design. The two share that their differences complement each other, Smitha provides a more strategic approach while Marsha provides her sense of design. Having to work with ”RAGAM” people, background, and culture, planning is important to unite the vision. Before an event, it is necessary to plan, strategize and do mock-ups to ensure everything goes smoothly.
“Because of the different backgrounds, the perspectives are different too. We learn from each other. If they are the same, there is no added value to each other.”
What Motivates you every day?
SMITHA: “When I was an employee, I felt that I couldn’t do this for the rest of my life, especially later when I have responsibilities as a mother. And doing this (Jeumpa) with my sister is what I can do for a long time, and later when I have kids.”
MARSHA: “I asked myself once why I don’t feel tired whenever I work in the studio late. That means I must’ve really liked it. I found that flowers are therapeutic. Whenever I feel stressed then I go back into the studio, I feel immediately free. This (Jeumpa), is my escape, it’s like my second home and safe space. It’s fun because what I do can be such a comfortable place.”
There are fulfilling moments that capture why they do what they do. For them, flowers are a medium for people to convey messages and feelings. For example, when they decorate for weddings and see people happy even with their small decorations, that makes them very happy. It is the reason why they introduce themselves not as Jeumpa Florist but Jeumpa as a creative floral studio. What they do is more than just selling flowers and decorations. Now, they’ve begun to sell products and merchandise as well. Jeumpa aspires to foster creativity and experimentation, pushing the limit of what flowers can do as a medium.
“I’m happy if Jeumpa can inspire people to create.” — Marsha
Smitha and Marsha both share similar hobbies outside of work. The sisters love to enrich themselves with art and get inspired. They like going to the museum, meeting with artists and painters, traveling, and going to festivals. The two also enjoy exercising, sharing that their small age gap and similar taste contributes to how close they are.
Last but not least, what are your favorite flowers and their meaning?
MARSHA: “Orchid”
Marsha explains that orchid is Jeumpa’s signature flower as it is the flower of Southeast Asian and also their cultural inspiration. One of their products is called “Jeumpa Pesona”, derived from its Indonesian sobriquet “Puspa Pesona”. Jeumpa has shown their innovative way to style orchids in a way no one has done before.
SMITHA: “Rose”
While sharing the same sentiment that orchid is their signature flower and her all time favorite, she picked rose as her favorite flower at the moment. She feels that people often conceive ideas that roses are difficult to arrange, old-fashion, or tacky. “I feel like rose has become the underdog now,” says Smitha. Many clients have specifically requested not to include roses in their wedding decorations, meanwhile for Smitha, nothing beats the meaning of a rose in a flower. Rose has the most meaning and history, explains Smitha, the only one that can symbolize love. She thinks it might be because roses haven’t been innovated. She wants to introduce and explore how roses can be styled and show a new fresh take on rose.
Looking forward, Marsha and Smitha are planning to establish their own in-house plant nursery focusing on sustainability and exploring unique creative possibilities with flowers as their artistic medium, pushing the boundaries of floral artistry.
