Global Crafts

Hand-Painted Embossed Elephant Wind Chimes Made from Recycled Iron

Name: Hand-Painted Embossed Elephant Wind Chimes Made from Recycled Iron
Brand: Global Crafts
SKU: IX13MM20001_DS
Price: 29.99 USD
Availability: InStock

$29.99 USD

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The elephant chime is handcrafted from recycled iron, hand embossed, and painted with an antique copper finish and colorful accents. This chime works well indoors as art or outdoors as a garden chime. Elephant trunks pointed upward are thought to dispense energy, luck, and prosperity!

Handmade by artisans at a family workshop in Behat, India, the metal smithing craft has been passed down from one generation to the next. The workshop was established in 1976 and employs the artisan family and well-trained artisans from the area.

Product Features:

Type: Wall Art or Garden Chime.
Colors: rustic copper finish with handpainted red, green, and gold accents.
Materials: Recycled iron and jute string.
Lacquer finish, lead-free.
Dimensions: Approx. 11 inches from top to bottom and 5 inches wide.
Cone Bells are approximately 2.25 inches tall and just under 1 inch at the base.
The chains measure approximately 5.75 inches to the bottom of the bell.
A Jute string loop for hanging measures approximately 6 inches.
Indoor/Outdoor.

Story Behind the Art:

The workshop buys sheets of scrap metal from dealers who collect it door-to-door. But don’t let that make you doubt the quality of their handicrafts; they ensure the scrap comes from acceptable material and transforms the trash into beautiful art. The artisans specialize in a particular type of finishing known as “Rasai”. This is when a layer of brass is added onto the wrought iron to give the products a rustic and crude appearance.

Due to the handmade nature, slight variations in size, color, shape, pattern, or other characteristics may be evident. Each piece is truly a unique work of art, lovingly crafted by hand.

About the Artisans

We work with One World Projects who in turn, works with Choma Museum and Crafts Centre Trust Ltd (CMCC), in Choma, in the center of the Southern Province of Zambia, Africa.

The crafts divisions of the CMCC are associated with about 450 crafts makers, primarily women (400) who are subsistence farmers who derive badly needed cash income from their crafts making. The CMCC seeks to promote Zambian crafts and culture by assisting in marketing, skill development and local organization of producers. The skill development is based on traditional techniques, materials, and design.

Plateau Baskets are made on the Plateau districts by Tonga women living on the highlands of the Southern Province of Zambia. The development of this basket during the past 25 years has been spectacular. It is the major single craft of the province and is exported all over the world.

Basket Weaving from Natural Fibers

Basket making is the main economic craft of the province, so domestic cultivation of the Malala Palm tree is promoted. Women are the main beneficiaries of basket-weaving income.

The traditional Tonga basket has a square woven base and a wide round rim at the top. The bottom strips or twigs extend radially into the walls of the basket and palm leaf strips are then woven into it. The pale strips may be dyed black to allow for woven patterning. Patterns are also made by variations in weaving, by leaving the dark radials exposed or by covering them. The basket is then completed by weaving in a round rim.