This holiday card with a candle motif is a great way to express your sentiments this holiday. Handcrafted from banana leaves, these eco-friendly holiday cards are created by women artisans in Rwanda. Having started with a modest group of 20 women in 1994, today Gahaya Links works towards the social and economic empowerment of more than 4,000 artisans from the region.

• Measures 6-3/8” tall x 4-3/4” wide

Handmade in Rwanda and fair trade imported.

Artworks made from dried banana leaves are an age old craft practiced in many African countries. Banana trees are abundant in the region and thus make the raw material for the artwork easily available.

The banana leaf artwork is made with very fine slices of the various layers of the banana leaves, which are interlaced, assembled and pasted together. These fine slices of the banana leaf are pasted with ubugali, homemade glue obtained from the roots of the cassava plant.

The banana leaves have a natural pigmentation and can vary from leaf to leaf, this helps create a monochromatic color contrast in the artwork. Sometimes the leaves are also dyed to create a more dramatic effect. Banana leaf artwork requires high skill and patience and is a very time consuming craft practiced by the artisans