VERDITE

Ancient tribesmen crafted Verdite into jewellery and witchdoctors made a preparation from the powdered stone, which they believed increased fertility.

Verdite is a semi-precious volcanic stone over 3,500 million years old. Found in only one mine in the world, Zimbabwe Verdite is unique and often contains quantities of ruby corundum (the second hardest mineral know to science) and green-brown chromium rich mica. The outcome is a gorgeous interplay of changing patterns and shades ranging from browns to emerald greens and blues.

The extreme hardness of the stone allows for the exquisite detail involved in carving  naturalistic heads and animals.

It is being sought out after by International Art Collectors who have been quick to recognize it as a rare and intrinsically valuable material.

SERPENTINE

Sculpture is produced from a variety of Zimbabwean rocks, which have a diverse origin and geological history.

The common material is serpentine with a source about 160 km deep in the earth’s crust and formed close to the surface about 2.6 billion years ago.  These rocks contain the important chromite deposits of the great dyke of Zimbabwe – an impressive feature that extends for some 450 km from the Zambezi Valley in the north to the Limpopo in the south. In general, the rock is hard compared to soapstone, but in places it I deeply weathered, stained reddish-brown by iron-oxide, and permeated by silica so that a fine polish is obtained upon the very hard surface with a variegated colouring in shades of green and reddish brown. The particularly vivid shades of green of some of the material is due to fuchsite, chromium-mica. The very dark green to black colouring is a characteristic of Serpentine which itself is altered form a granular rock-dunite by the addition of substantial amounts of water at some time in its history. Black Serpentine is unusual and an indication that the Serpentine minerals are particularly fine grained, dense and not reflective. This rock has a clear ring under the sculptor’s chisel and is known by the artists as Springstone.

Excerpt by Keith Viewing (A Tourist Paradise Magazine, December 1995)

SPRINGSTONE

Black Serpentine is unusual and an indication that the Serpentine minerals are particularly fine grained, non- reflective and shares a density similar to North American marble. This rock has a clear ring under the sculptor’s chisel and is known by the artists as Springstone. Many adept Shona sculptors choose to work with Springstone for its radiant sheen and often flawless colouring.

RAPOKOSTONE

Commonly referred to as Rapoko stone in Zimbabwe, Steatite is a natural soft stone that falls under the general category of soapstone. Rapoko is found on every continent in the world with the possible exception of Antarctica. Its remarkable qualities have made this stone one of the most widely used minerals on earth. Over 10 million years old, Rapoko is a natural mineral, prized since ancient times for its durability, workability, beautiful character and ability to retain and radiate heat and resist chemicals.

SOAPSTONE

Soapstone, also known as steatite, is a metamorphic rock . It is predominately composed of talc, from which its slippery feel it got its name and tends to be a very soft rock. It lends itself well to sculpture. 

WONDERSTONE

Another stone that is sometimes grouped in this classification is the mineral pyrophyllite (also known as Wonderstone), which has similar chemical composition and appearance, and is usually only slightly harder when compared with Talc.