Elephant Tea Light - Orange

About Elephant Tea Light - Orange

Meet the Artisans Our Soapstone is carved by a group of artists who live in the rural village of Tabaka, Kenya, the heart of soapstone crafts. They are members of the WFTO which assures that the artisans are paid a fair price for their work. In addition, the organization support community development by contributing to projects that improve living conditions, education, and health of their members and the village at large. Their work is reducing poverty through economic transformation in a country where the majority are income-poor or near the poverty line. Story behind the Art African Soapstone is among the most beautiful in the world. Mined by hand from surface mines large stones are pulled by a team of workers, cleaved into smaller pieces, and then worked into stunning art and functional objects. Soapstone is mined from great pits in the area surrounding Kiisi, Kenya. The mined soapstone is then delivered to carvers who carve sculptures from the natural stone for the wholesale market, the color of which ranges from cream, to pink, to brown, to yellow, to black, to a marbling of all of them. Once carved, the craftspeople smooth rough edges of the soapstone with sandpaper dipped in water and polish the piece to a high gloss or paint African motifs in brilliant colors with etched accents. These soapstone treasures are completely crafted by hand using household tools ranging from screwdrivers to hand drills to switchblades. Pangas (sword-like tools used for cutting down vegetation) are used to cleave the stone in the mines. Given the handmade nature of this product please allow for minor variations in color, size and design. Each piece is a one-of-a-kind piece of art.