This fun set of fish-shaped wooden bowls makes a great gift for culinary enthusiasts. Each bowl is hand carved from wild olivewood, a beautiful hardwood indigenous to Eastern Africa, by the Kamba people of Kenya. With care, wild olivewood bowls grow more and more beautiful with age.

About the artisans:

The Kamba people of Eastern Kenya enjoy a strong affinity for music, art and dance, and their culture resembles that of Kenya's nomadic Nilotic peoples like the Maasai and Borana, and agrarian Bantu tribes like the Kikuyu.

The Kamba carvers who craft these bowls travel into the bush in groups for safety and set up a makeshift camp at the site of the felled tree. Together, the carvers sit down and rough in the basic carving for items on their respective orders. Having a variety of items to work on allows the carvers to better utilize the tree. From large items like these bowls down to small pieces like earrings, the carvers hew a collection of beautiful shapes from the wood.

The carvers return to their homes to finish the carving, sanding and finishing on their items before delivering them to our producer in Kenya. There, each bowl is fitted with pieces of bone inlay purchased from the Luo people that live in the Nyanza province bordering Lake Victoria in Western Kenya. The Luo collect the bone from butcheries, then convert it into a variety of useful items and decorative embellishment.

Both the Kamba and Luo people who craft the components of this bowl are paid fairly for their piece work. Through the Swahili network, artisans use their talents to gain an income in a way that doesn't interfere with their way of life.