Love is a gift to give and to receive.  This handmade, fair trade Large Soapstone Heart Paperweight from Kenya is a lovely gift for anyone on your list. 
 
Approximately 3" wide, it's a substantial paperweight that also serves as a simple reminder that love is always present. Perfect to use in the office or on your favorite student's desk, the natural color variations in shades of cream, grey, pink and brown in the soapstone create a totally unique look to every single heart.
 
Every item of our Soapstone collection starts as a huge hunk of stone, mined and hauled form the lushly green hills of southwestern Kenya, before being sawed and hacked by machetes into smaller chunks of soapstone.  Master artisans chisel and carve every piece into its final rough shape, and then more artisans wet sand until it is completely smooth.  Then the hot Kenyan sun dries the soapstone items before different artisans paint and hand-etch every single message.  So much time and talent, so many hands and so very much love goes into every single heart.
 
Purchasing just one of these hearts or of any of the Kisii Soapstone pieces provides so many jobs and a sustainable, stable income that provides for each woman artisan's family and the education and university fees for their children in a country where employment is too often nearly impossible for women to find.
 
Approx. 3 inches wide