Ironwood
Unique! No two Ironwood statues are identical...each is an individually hand-carved Ironwood statue!
Yes, there is an Ironwood Tree. It is native to the Sonoran Desert which extends from Southern Arizona to Northern Mexico. Ironwood is a very dense wood which makes carving difficult, but rewarding. It takes special carving talent to start with a piece from the ironwood tree and create one of the beautiful carved sculptures at Wall Street Gifts. As its name implies the wood is quite heavy and even sinks in water!
Ironwood carving is a unique form of art which originated wiith the Seri Indians.
Who are the Seri? They are a small indigenous tribe that have lived in the Sonoran Desert for thousands of years. The majority reside on Seri communal property. After all these years, they have maintained their language and culture. The Seri people have no relationship to other groups. Their language is distinctive. In fact Seri language is considered a language isolate. The Seri and the Apache are both known as fierce warriors. The Seri have been living on the coast of Sonora with little outside interference for centuries. However, with colonization many were displaced.
Each ironwoood statue on our site has been handcrafted from Ironwood which is a very dense and heavy wood of intriguing origin. Carving from Ironwood is unusually demanding. First, the Seri need to gather the ironwood to carve. Then, each piece is hand crafted using very simple tools. No machines! To create a statue from Ironwood, it takes long hours of carving - craft from long ago. After being carved, each piece needs hand sanding and polishing. The carver must also have an artistic "eye" to effectively capture the beautiful burl and distinctive grain inherent to Ironwood. Each piece of ironwood has its own character, which means no two pieces are identical.
To be suitable for carving, the wood must be exposed to the extremes of the climatic conditions that exist only in the desert. Years of exposure in this hot, dry environment cause the natural resins to collect, condense and cure, thus transforming the wood into very dense and heavy Ironwood. The government has prohibited the harvesting of living Ironwood trees which is good. The artisans search extensively for naturally fallen trees. No green wood is used for carving.
Once a month our vendor drives a pick-up truck to pick up the new ironwood carvings from the Seri carvers. We plan to ship all orders - but you may need patience. We try to keep our site current. Each individual product states "time to ship". If it in IN STOCK, it will say so. For other items you get approximate shipping date.
Ironwood carving involves NO manufacturing...many carvers have become specialists in a certain animal or theme. Our purveyor is a small business who concentrates on ironwood. Wall Street Gifts (that's us!) is also a small business.
The name Seri is an exonym of uncertain origin. (Claims that it is from Opata or from Yaqui were nineteenth-century speculations based on similarity to words in those languages and lack clear evidence.)[2] Their name