DOCTOR & WIFE

Since 2017, when we began working with Farai Mangenda, we have been amazed at the ability of Farai to give stone life; but we have been equally enthralled by his talent in ensuring that each work is unique and original!  In each Butter Jade piece Farai has a large variety of accoutrements, hair-styles, earrings, especially earrings, head gear, expressions, and textures in his arsenal that makes each work a one-of-a-kind experience. 

This splendid pair, Doctor & Wife, exemplifies Farai's exceptional talent. The accoutrements of a N'Anga's (a traditional Doctor) craft bedeck the Male figure with the Female figure echoing the additions with a necklace, earrings, and a decorated headband of an intricate hairstyle.

Each Butter Jade pair is a testament to his incredible talent. The creamy smoothness impregnated in Butter Jade is  a deep green petrified vegetable called unakite, material that requires very special techniques to position the subject in such a way that the dramatic contrasts do not detract the eye from the composition.  In the quarry at Birchenough Bridge in Manicaland, the deeper into the deposit, the "cleaner" the stone seems to be. The claim was staked in 2005 by Jacab Chikumbirike and the sculptors and those sculptors who have succeeded in "taming" the hard and challenging material are few and far between. Farai Mangenda is the master of Butter Jade. He understands the stone like no other sculptor working today in Zimbabwe.