Looking for african carvings, especially those made from verdite, a rare type of stone, is one of our favourite pastimes, when we're on vacation in South Africa. (To date verdite has only been found in two locations in Africa, in Zimbabwe and specific locations in South Africa.)

We often just stop to admire some of the stone and verdite carving collections on display because they are so amazing! The intricate details on those final carvings transform them in to works of art, to be treasured by their lucky owners.

Often these items are being sold personally by the sculptors, and we stop to chat to them about their work, and discover that many of them do not have ANY formal training, so it's just natural skills and talent.

We don't have many african carvings yet, but plan on expanding our collection on future vacations. Our favorite verdite collection piece is of a Rhinoceros, (see photo above) especially because of all the events surrounding it, when we bought it in Johannesburg in 1995. But that's another story on it's own!

According to the sales blurb we received from one of the local curio stores, Verdite is a semi-precious stone, over 3,500 million years old. It's also called The Green Stone of Africa, and Africa's Green Gold. The only known sources of verdite are in southern Africa, mainly Zimbabwe, where the best quality deposits have been found.

The verdite stone's different hues accentuate the very specific attention to detail on the actual items, and the beauty of the finished artworks.

On our last vacation, when we were driving along a side road in the Cape Province, South Africa, we stumbled across this display of almost life-sized wooden carvings, miles from the nearest towns! So, unfortunately, we cannot tell you how to find the place again. We were so surprised to see the display, we stopped to take this photo. Someone else had also stopped too, fortunately; their vehicle helps to give a good indication of the size of the carvings.

African Tribal Masks are also very fascinating. We can learn a lot about the various African tribes and cultures through the masks and costumes that various tribes have created and used.

For more information on African tribal masks, check out the site mask-and-more-masks.

There are also special pages on masks from the various continents, so there's a page just on African masks, to learn more about this intriguing aspect of African tribal life.