Simple steps up a notch when presented in mpingo. Mpingo is the Swahili name for the tree known scientifically as Dalbergia melanoxylon. Also known as African blackwood, Mozambican ebony, grenadilla and zebrawood, mpingo is a rich dark wood that turns beautifully on a lathe.

 

This is a new design that emerged during Leslie's February 2009 design trip to Mozambique. To create each bracelet, artisans turn blocks of legally harvested wood, the same wood that is used in the world's finest woodwind instruments.  The miombo woodlands that stretch across Tanzania and Mozambique are still rich with mpingo trees, owing in part to Mozambique's long civil war and to conservation efforts following its end.