• Where it starts

    Quarried in the hills of different areas of Zimbabwe, stone sculpting has been an integral part of the Shona culture for many generations. The artist specifically selects his/her stone, usually based on its shape, or colors. They are then loaded onto a truck and carried hours away to the artist's workshop. Sometimes the artist already knows what type of sculpture he wants to create, but sometimes the artist brings out the design that he organically sees already there due to its shape.

  • “What it Takes” Cutting, Chiseling, and Filing

    First a hammer and “punch”, or chisel, are used to clear away the stone that hides the vision of the finished sculpture. Then, when possible, grinders and discs are also often used for general shaping, followed by metal files (rasps) to more accurately shape and file down the rough surface of the stone. Every worked area is then wet sanded by hand with every grit level of sandpaper, from the roughest to the finest grit.

  • Where it ends

    The color is the natural color of the stone, but is darker because it has been finely sanded, washed, heated with a blow torch, then polished with floor wax, which melts into the stone due to the heat. When the stone cools down, the wax is then buffed out. It is as if the stone is sitting in water. If you find a beautiful stone in a river, and you remove it, let it dry off, it will become greyish.  This is the same with the sculptures, the artists have managed to maintain the sitting in water look with floor wax. 

Artists at work

See behind the scenes, where talented artists see a masterpiece in a block of stone.

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Artists Neighborhoods

See what an average day in the life of one of our talented artists looks like.

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FAQs

Are your sculptures all hand made?

How long does an average sculpture take?

What stone are the sculptures made of?

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