Soapstone

SMOLart  - The Village Country Store

Smolart is a fair trade community based organization based in a small village of Tabaka Kisii county Kenya.  We (Smolart) work with 200 artisan who earn their living by the sale of their handcraft items made from Kisii soapstone a unique stone found only in this village of Tabaka.

Soapstone is mined from great pits in the area surrounding Kiisi, Kenya. The mined soapstone is then delivered to carvers who carve sculptures from the natural stone, the color of which ranges from cream, to pink, to brown, to yellow, to black, to a marbling of all of them. Once carved, the craftspeople smooth rough edges of the soapstone with sandpaper dipped in water and polish the piece to a high gloss or paint African motifs in brilliant colors with etched accents.

All of the soapstone products we sell are completely handmade. The tools consist of household items from screwdrivers, hand drills, to switchblades. "Pangas," sword-like tools usually used for cutting down vegetation, are used to cleave the stone in the mines.