FACTS ABOUT STONE

Much of the stone used in Shona sculptures is quarried. The craftsman takes great care when selecting stone for a sculpture, the shape, natural patena and size of rock all influence the final piece of art. The stone samples shown below were given to us by Freddy Mutekedza one of the Shona sculptor we support.

In describing the various types of stone we are using the local names as described by the sculptors and they will not not necessarily feature in any text book.

Soapstone

Soapstone carvings are sometimes also referred to as Shona stone carvings.

This term is derived from the fact that as far back as the Mutapa Empire the Shona tribe were the first people to use soapstone in carvings. Some historical pieces can still be found in the ruins of Great Zimbabwe (1200 AD) 17 miles from Masvingo.

Soapstone is made of talc steatite and is a soft stone making it easy to work with. Soapstone comes in various colours, grey, beige, black and dark brown.

Rapoko

Rapoko is a type of soapstone and it comes a variety of colours, brown, green, black and red.

Serpentine

Serpentine stone is the most commonly used stone in Zimbabwean carvings. Black serpentine in particular is much harder than the lighter coloured variety.

Springstone

Springstone is one of the strongest and most difficult stone to work with and many artists prefer to work with large pieces of this stone. Springstone is a very hard and dense serpentine stone with high iron content. It can be found in various colours, green, black, opal and fruit serpentine which is brown in colour.

Verdite

Verdite is a semi precious stone and therefore has an intrinsic value. It is usually green or brown in colour but, sometimes a combination of green and brown can be found in the same piece of rock. Verdite is over 3 million years old and is highly saught after. Verdite is only found in Southern Africa and the best quality rock is found in Zimbabwe. It is becoming increasingly difficult to source as resources are becoming depleated.

Opal

Opal is a light green serpentine rock sometimes with red, orange or blue speckles or hue. It is a hard and very dense rock.

Cobalt

Cobalt is an exceedinlgy dense serpentine stone varying in different colours and can be found near Guruve.

Butter Jade