Woodway Magazine / Makers & craft
East African carving that creates expression by leaving the pale sapwood against black mpingo.
Woodway Magazine editors · Sep 24, 2023 · 3 min read
The Makonde are a people who live in southeastern Tanzania and northern Mozambique, and are widely known for their mpingo carvings. They carve figures of people and animals from the hard, heavy black heartwood.
They sometimes deliberately leave part of the sapwood in the carving. The places where the pale wood color brushes against the black body become the carving’s expression.
Photo: Woodway Studio · Visit to an African art gallery (September 24, 2023).
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Mpingo