Lovers Embrace Stone Ring Shona Sculpture

Lovers Embrace Stone Ring Shona Sculpture A hand made sculpture fashioned from serpentine stone in Zimbabwe by a local Shona artisan. It features a rough exterior and smooth abstract figure in its interior that represents a lovers embrace. It measures 7”x 6” Please note that each sculpture is handmade and their may be slight variations in color, pattern, and size. The materials used by the Shona people for carvings come the "The Great Dyke" a 340 mile geologic Lopolithic area (2.5 billion yr old) Shona sculpture is world renowned among discerning art collectors. Isolated from the West by geography and politics, the Shona looked within for inspiration – within their own land, within their own spiritual legacy. The word Shona is the name of an ethnic group in the small Southern African country of Zimbabwe. It is out of this culture, the mythology, folklore, rituals and beliefs in ancestral spirits and tradition that the expression of the stone art is derived. Shona sculpture embodies, and is shaped by the physical and spiritual world of the artist. Most Shona sculptors believe that the spirit of the sculpture is in the stone and they are the channels through which that spirit whispers and is released. The sculptors are self-taught and often don’t use modern machinery or artistic techniques to realize their masterpieces. While the popularity of Shona sculpture is still mainly in the domain of an artistic elite and is sought after by collectors and investors worldwide.