African KISII SOAPSTONE Carving NUDE LOVERS Erotic Body

The digging of these rocks is done using crude method, which is labour intensive. Due to the market potential and the easy availability of this natural resource commodity, many Kisii people have come to rely on it as one of their major soure of income. The raw quarry stones are excavated by hand and carried to workshops that are up to 10 kilometers away. The stones are first worked with a panga (large knife), to break the stones into a manageable size and get the rough shape. A kisu (smaller knife) is then used for more detailed work. Finally increasingly fine-grained sandpapers are used to polish and finish the piece.

The seriousness, the local people place on soapstone as their income generating activity is evidenced by the manner in which the carvers have perfected their skills. The greatest consumers of the product are tourists who often buy and take the decorative soapstone items as gifts for friends or for home decorative purposes.  

Since the soapstone is sourced from the local community farms, the mining and carving of the soapstone is often treated as a family's income generating activity and as such it is done at a family level. It is at the family that marketing of the finished products to interested buyers is carried out and at times through group work or through the co-operative.

The trade of soapstone comprises both the men and the women, young and old. Traditionally, it is men who do the digging of the stone from the mines or the quarry as well as carving the products in the required designs. The women's part involves polishing and washing the finished products as well as applying the shinning wax cream pupulary known as cobra wax. Though soapstone is a leading export product, it happens to be a very fragile commodity, which requires extra care particularly, when it comes to handling and exporting or transfering the finished product from the rural areas to Nairobi and even to the port of destination be it in Kenya's Mombasa port or overseas.

Cleaning the carving                                                             Polishing the carving                                        Shining the carving.

More Kisii Soapstone carvings. Check out my other items! in my STORE!!!

Please note:

We agree and abide by the FAIR TRADE POLICY by IFAT (The International Fair Trade Association)   

2.  To purchase from co-operatives, non-profit organizations or directly from the artisans whenever possible. If using an intermediary, to ensure that a fair portion goes back to the artisan.

We recognise that each country we deal with is unique and we try and adapt our trading policies to suit the different economic, social, political and cultural aspects of each country.

We will NOT buy from any market using forced or child labour. We pay fair prices to producer groups, and we insure that individual workers receive fair wages.

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