Hand Made Sterling Silver African Map

Size:
Height: 1 ½ inches
Length: 1 inches

This unique and beautiful necklace was made in South Africa by a jeweler that has managed to combine traditional African with a modern medium. The traditional San or Bushman cave paintings have been used to enhance the sterling silver African map pendant. The giraffe and hunters are cut out by hand.

About the Giraffe.

The Giraffe is native to Sub Saharan Africa, and is the worlds tallest land animal. This egg has been painted with concentric layers of brown/green and orange, and then decorated with Giraffes using decoupage. Decoupage is the art of cutting and pasting cutouts to simulate paintings on a wood, metal, glass or in this case egg surface. Each egg takes 27 days to decorate, with several coats of lacquer applied to acquire the high gloss finish. First the background is painted once it is dried a few coats of lacquer are applied with a light sanding between each layer, then the decoupage images are applied, several more layers of lacquer are applied with a light sanding between each, the egg is finished with some gold accents. By applying the art to the egg in this way it gives the egg a multi-dimensional appearance instead of a flat appearance.

About the Bushmen.

When 4000 years ago nomads came into contact with the much longer established hunter-gatherers of Southern Africa, they called them San meaning food gatherers. In the 17th century the Dutch colonized the Cape of Good Hope and called the hunter-gatherers of the plains “Boschjemannen” which translates to Bushmen. Bushmen are the longest surviving tribe of Southern Africa they are descendents of the Stone Age people.

The chain is not included and is used for display purposes only. Comes beautifully gift boxed