Currently showing
Tendai Gwasira has worked stone at the Tengenenge sculpture community in northern Zimbabwe for nineteen years. Each piece begins as a raw block of serpentine, selected for its grain and colour, and is shaped over three to six weeks using hand chisels and wet-sanding.
View the collectionCollections
Serpentine, springstone, and verdite from the Tengenenge and Chapungu communities in Zimbabwe. Each piece is carved from a single block over weeks, shaped by hand chisel and finished with heated beeswax. The Shona carving tradition dates to the 1950s but draws on forms far older.
Browse sculptureHand-loomed runners, throws, and wall pieces from workshops in Addis Ababa and Cape Town. Cotton dyed with natural pigments — indigo, turmeric, iron-rich clay. The Kente pieces are sourced from Bonwire, the Ashanti village where the tradition originated four centuries ago.
Browse textilesZulu and Ndebele beading from KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga. Each pattern carries meaning — colour sequences encode messages about the maker's community and status. We work with the Monkeybiz collective in Cape Town and independent beaders in rural KZN.
Browse beadworkPit-fired and wood-kiln ceramics from Limpopo and the Eastern Cape. The Venda potting tradition uses coil-building techniques passed between women across generations. Each plate carries the specific iron-rich clay of its region — the reds of Thohoyandou, the grey-blacks of the Transkei coast.
Browse ceramicsThe piece knows what it wants to be. I just take away the stone that isn't part of it.Tendai Gwasira, Tengenenge
Featured piece
Joseph Mwangi · Kilifi, Kenya · Baobab wood
Turned from a single section of fallen baobab root, dried for eight months before shaping. The grain pattern is unique to each piece — no two share the same figure. Joseph works from a small workshop near the Kilifi creek, sourcing only storm-fallen timber.
Recent additions
Shona Guardian Figure
Tendai Gwasira · Tengenenge
R 2,800
Ndebele Beaded Collar
Esther Mahlangu workshop · Mpumalanga
R 680
Kente Cloth Runner
Bonwire weavers · Ashanti, Ghana
R 580
Venda Pit-Fired Plate
Mukondeni Pottery · Limpopo
R 420
Hammered Copper Bangle
Lamu metalworkers · Kenya coast
R 350
Baobab Root Bowl
Joseph Mwangi · Kilifi, Kenya
R 1,450
About mazuri
mazuri was started in Cape Town with a simple position: the craft traditions of southern and eastern Africa produce some of the most compelling contemporary art and objects in the world, and the people who make them should be known by name.
We source directly from workshops and individual makers in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Tanzania, and Ghana. No middlemen, no wholesale markets, no container lots. Each piece on this site was selected in person, and each maker receives the majority of the sale price.
We ship across South Africa and internationally. Pieces are wrapped in recycled textile offcuts from the Cape Town garment district.