Jacarandell African Carvings

I’ve been asked to explain briefly what Jacarandell is for an overseas publication.

This is not an easy task – why?  When you consider what Ndubeko Ndlovu and his son Brian undertake to achieve a beautiful piece of finished “functional art”, I feel that this is not worthy of a brief description…. however, I’m up for the challenge.

“My” carvers come from Dete, near Hwange, and stay here at the farm near Bulawayo to carve for a few weeks or months at a time.  When they are at home in Dete, they live in a rural location, tending cattle and crops, mainly maize (“mealies”) when the rains are kind.  They have no irrigation facilities and transport is all by donkey or oxen pulled “scotch carts”.

They have a God-given talent which is remarkable.  They carve, through instinct and observation, any animal, bird, or creature on any “platform” from various types of wood, hard or soft.  I chose Jacaranda and exotic Syringa for carving, as they are not indigenous to Zimbabwe, they are in plentiful supply, and have top timber qualities.

Thousands of exotic trees were planted in the colonial times in Rhodesia, when settlers streamed in from Britain in the early 1900’s.  Many people are now replacing these with indigenous trees in their gardens.  Yes, those Jacaranda purple-lined streets in October are beautiful in  our Zimbabwean cities, but there are plenty growing apart from in the Avenues.

I digress.

The process:  Ndubeko and Brian approve a tree which I’ve chosen.  The tree is cut down.  I give them a list of products to make, either orders, or for stock.  Sections are cut in manageable sizes for carving the creative products:

Cheeseboards, breadboards, small round cutting boards, doorstoppers, Nativity sets, Christmas decorations, loo roll holders, spoons and knives, and free standing ornaments – such as chickens, ducks, pangolins and more…..

Njabulo (now the late) and Ndubeko Ndlovu

They have already made a tiny axe each – by hand.  They chop and chop into the section of wood, carefully, down to a “rough sketch” as they call it.  Chop chop chop.  They then pick up a smaller axe.  Chop chop chop.  At this stage you see the animal developing and coming “to life.”

Now they use knives (similar to a long pen knife) to carve in more detail.  They then start the sandpaper process.  Rough, medium, and finally smooth – they sand and sand and sand, so that all the details are clear and super smooth.

Next:  the burnt detail.   A fire is made in an old tin from twigs and sticks, and small branches, cut very short.  The tin has been pierced with holes to enable air circulation, and bigger holes at the base, in which to insert their “burning wires”.

Burning wires are pieces of thick wire which have been inserted into rounded wooden handles, hand made of course.  The points of the wire are flattened / manipulated to be a certain size.  This will enable the carver to make specific marks on the carving – burnt details which bring the creature to life.  Spots on the tendeles, leopards and geckos, stripes on the lizards and zebras, feather marks on the birds.  The wires are pushed into the coals for a few minutes to get them red hot.  Several wires are inserted into the tin at the same time, so there can be a continuous supply to burn in detail.  On flat pieces, such as the boards, creatures are depicted entirely by burning – no three dimensional carving is done.  Ants, lizards and geckos are the main images which are burnt onto the flat boards.

Processes and finished articles including cheeseboards, nativity set, “Sibanda Spoons” made by Mr Sibanda, and doorstops (pictured with our cat Kibbles.)

Once they are satisfied with the burnt detail, and the product is finished, they bring the orders to me.  I check the quality, pay them per item, and market them.  Facebook is my main marketing tool.  The products are now in several countries around the world…. but as we are a co-operative and I have two carvers, it’s a tiny business.

There are fourteen different Christmas animal decorations, each with a special red Christmas ribbon around their neck.   Several clients have said that it is always a special moment hanging up Jacarandell decorations every year, and we are so happy about that.  We will be making Christmas birds again this year – something we did years ago – tendeles, hoopoes, pigeons and hornbills, and more to follow.

A basket full of Jacarandell African Animal Christmas Decorations

My friends the Ndlovus have gone back to Dete for a rest, as they have been working solidly for the last two months, getting stocks up.  Meanwhile Mr Sibanda is busily making three different sizes of spoons, and pate/butter knives.  These are made from a prolific indigenous multi-stemmed bush shrub, and we make sure that we only take out a small percentage of each shrub for manufacture.

We’ve had challenges and we’ve nearly closed.  Njabulo has very sadly died, far too young.  We have been shut for a few months at a time when things got really tough.  Zim dollar days, shortages.  But somehow we’ve managed to stay afloat.  We’ve been going for twenty years now, so we are celebrating!

I haven’t described Jacarandell briefly…. our products are so hand made that it’s nearly impossible…. so it’s back to the drawing board for that “brief description!”  I hope that one day you can all own a “special piece of Africa” made by the Ndlovus and Mr Sibanda of Jacarandell.

Contact Frances Randell on frandell@yoafrica.com or Facebook messenger for enquiries.  Jacarandell is on Facebook as a business page.