Spotlight on Soapstone

Soapstone, or steatite, has been a favorite carving medium for thousands of years.

It is a type of metamorphic rock, meaning that - in simple terms - temperature and pressure underground caused an existing rock to change form into another type.

That new type of rock, soapstone, is composed largely of talc making it relatively soft (that changes depending on the talc content), with an oily or soapy feel to it.  That's right, soapy.

It is because of that soft carvable quality that soapstone has been used to make sculpture, handicrafts and home goods for a very long time. The oldest identified soapstone sculpture was found in China, and is over three thousand years old. Soapstone use began in China but spread all over the world, from Alaska to India, as other cultures began mining or trading soapstone, and carving it for themselves.

Soapstone can be found in a variety of colors, although it is sometimes dyed for handicrafts. After the stone is mined, processing the stone generally consists of carving, washing, etching, and polishing.

In our collection we currently have several interesting soapstone boxes.  From India, and its long history of soapstone carving, our Black Soapstone box is actually gray stone that has been stained black.  Artisans then use small drills to etch the floral designs, revealing the gray color underneath.

We also have boxes from Kenya.  Both our Lizards and Soapstone Swirl boxes are from the region of Kisii.  A local mine provides soapstone for many artisans in that region, including the artisans who formed SMOLart Self Help Group, a fair trade organization from Tabaka and makers of our Lizards box.

Soapstone continues to be a medium that carvers embrace, coaxing out character and beauty. So we'll continue to add more amazing, always fairly traded, soapstone boxes to our collection.