Craft Zoo Retail

About Us

Craft Zoo retail was originally known as Amosquito.com and we have now brought our wholesale and retail divisions under one roof. The retail division will allow you to buy a single product without having to meet the minimum order values and pack quantities required on the wholesale division. YES… you can now actually purchase 1 single product if needed!

We are pleased to say that we offer beautiful handmade products purchased by Ethical means at competitive prices. Our products are carefully selected, quality checked, expertly packaged and only then despatched to you.

Delivery Information

Craft Zoo delivers to various countries around the World from our base in the United Kingdom. As all our products are handmade and vary in weight, shipping charges are calculated by using an approximate weight per item and adding a packaging cost to it. Products are despatched via Royal Mail or courier depending on the product chosen.

We aim to despatch all products with 10 working days of the order being placed, although on most occasions we despatch orders usually within 3 working days of receiving the order and all payments due having been cleared or authorised.

All shipping charges will be clearly displayed when your order is placed and prior to reaching the payment page.

Our shipping information is as follows:

For the UK we deliver to:
UK Mainland
Scottish Highlands
Northern Ireland

For Eire, Channel Islands & Off Shore UK including Scottish Isles there will be an additional £5.00 added to UK carriage charges (UK carriage charge plus £5.00)

Other Countries:

Your Input

Our customers are very important to us. Without your help we would not be able to support the many under priveleged indigenous people that we purchase our products from.

So how can you help?

If you feel that any of our products are suitable for your own use it would be great if you could purchase them. Alternatively you may know of someone who would be interested in our products - so please tell them about us and www.craftzoo.com

Do you know of any shops or organisations that may benefit from stocking our products? Why not suggest to them about stocking our products... afterall we do supply on a wholesale basis as well.

So what do you get for your efforts?

If that customer (wholesale buyers only) places an order with us we will send you a cheque worth 10% of the value of their first order (minus any discounts, VAT, delivery charges or refunds that may be applicable to them). An average shop order could be £300 - you could earn yourself £30 simply by promoting us!

Remember every little helps! Thank you for your support.

Product Information

DIMENSIONS

Animals (Elephants, Rhino, Hippos, Etc). These are measured diagonally. For Elephants, the Length is from the tip of the trunk to the base of the back leg. For Rhinos, the Length is from the tip of the horn to the base of the back leg. For Hippos, the Length is from the tip of the mouth to the base of the back leg.

DIMENSIONS MAY VARY DUE TO THE HANDMADE NATURE OF THE CRAFTS

Due to the handmade nature of our crafts, dimensions stated are for guidance only. It is normal for product dimensions to vary as the crafts-people try to make the best use of a piece of stone or wood to hand craft an item to the required shape and size with minimal wastage.

COLOURS & IMAGES

Many of the inks and dyes used are from natural resources and will fade over time. This is normal and adds to the beauty of the artefact as it ages over time. The colours shown on the products may differ due to the handmade nature of the crafts, and due to the photographic techniques used. 12.4 Images shown are for illustration only. Products supplied will not be exactly the same as the images shown. This is due to the handmade nature of the products and it is unlikely for products to be exactly the same as those shown in our images.

Product Materials & Textures

SOAPSTONE

Soapstone is a metamorphic stone, closely related to Serpentine. Steatite Soapstone is almost as hard as limestone but much more dense. Historically, Soapstone has been one of the World's most widely used dimension stone. Its uses have included sinks, sills and flooring. It also has remarkable thermal properties, which other stones do not have. Soapstone is a mineral that was used for foot warmers or griddles because of its heat-retaining properties. Soapstone was carved into figurines and bowls in many countries in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

GOOD WOODS

Craft Zoo has undertaken a policy to supply as many products as possible by using woods sourced from trees which are either soft woods or grow at a much faster rate than the traditional hard woods used for African Carvings. However the Crafts people are used to carving from Hard Woods and it is a slow process to get them retrained into using softer woods which require a different carving technique.

EBONY

Ebony is the common name for the tree Diospyrus, which contains about 300 species. It's distribution lies throughout the tropical zone of the earth. The grain pattern of Ebony is very tight, close together and indistinct. Ebony needs to be worked with metalworking tools as it will dull most other equipment. It finishes smooth and has a beautiful sheen when highly polished.

ROSEWOOD

Botanical Name: Dalbergia nigra

Rosewood has about 7 species associated with lumbar production. Some of these are found in Africa, India and Madagascar. The heart of the tree is prized for its rich, deep red colour. Rosewood is a hard, shock resistant, flexible, stable and strong wood. It is fairly easy to work, bend and glue. It also machines and veneers well. It polishes to a high sheen mainly due to its oily nature. It stands up to constant use. It is such a heavy wood that its logs can hardly float in water. One of the most desirable features of Rosewood is its exquisite colour and exotic patterning. Rosewood was used in fine panelling, cabinetry and furniture.

MAHOGANY

Botanical Name: Swietenia Macrophylla

Mahogany is a Tropical wood. African Mahogany is one of the true Mahoganies. Mahogany is the heavyweight of all woods, and is one of the most valuable timber trees. Mahogany is extremely strong, hard, stable and decay resistant. The colour of African Mahogany ranges from pale pink to dark reddish brown. Mahogany rates among the top twelve timber woods in the World.

TEXTURES

African crafts are usually made from a number of main raw materials. These are mainly wood and stone. Each item is unique in its own way. The reason is that some items can only be carved in a certain way depending on the original piece of raw material. Two hippos may be carved by the same crafts-man from two pieces of similar stone. However, only one hippo looks up into the sky. The crafts-man has to decide which stone will bring out the best emotion. Thus the hippo looking at the sky may simply be because the stone allowed this 'emotion'. However, the skills and imagination of the crafts-people are very important to bring out the various 'emotions' simply from a piece of stone or wood. These skills have been passed from generation to generation.