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Pendants created by a Shona stone carver in Zimbabwe The Shona tribe, from Zimbabwe in Africa, are world-renowned for their skill in transforming rock into beautiful works of art. Each piece is painstakingly created using simple hand tools and the skills handed down by generations. Most important of all, this art is truthful to the stone and to the ideals and subjects with which the artists work, the sculptors not only have an intensive technical knowledge and understanding of the stone, but also a great spiritual respect for this natural resource, which they believe, like all other things around them, has an innate spiritual life force of its own. Although many of the beliefs can seem complex to western cultures, in Shona Sculpture the artist expresses the fundamental relationships between the two guiding forces in Shona life - the visible physical world and the unseen spiritual world that exists in all cultures, but in Shona culture represents very influential ancestral spirits who are communicators between the dead and the living. Not many of these talented carvers choose to work in small scale; most commonly they produce larger sculptures. These pendants are carved by a Shona man from Zimbabwe named Mzimba. He is a sculptor who decided to make miniature pieces of wearable art. Serpentine is the most commonly used stone by artists in Zimbabwe. It ranges in color and hardness; the hardest being black serpentine, also known as springstone. Serpentine is thought to have formed 2.6 billion years ago. A 300 mile stretch of serpentine runs through Zimbabwe. Serpentine is formed in and from a rock, Dunite, and is rich in the mineral Olivine. Serpentine can have a smooth, greasy feel to it. Verdite is a semi-precious stone found in Zimbabwe which ranges in color from emerald to brown. It's hardness is greater than the hardness of serpentine, making it a challenging sculpting medium. Verdite is over 3.5 million years old and is highly sought after. It is only found in southern Africa, with the highest quality being found in a deposit in Zimbabwe. It is therefore becoming rare and therefore highly prized.
Nyaminyami, the Zambezi River God
Abstract images carved from Verdite ...back to Africa page
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