Fine Carvings - African Women
Walking Stick
by Stepan Romanyshyn
Dec 2025
Fine Carvings - African Women
Walking Stick
by Stepan Romanyshyn
Dec 2025
This miniature sculpture belongs to the ongoing series African Women, created as sculptural objects for everyday use — including walking sticks, bookends, table sculptures, and wooden vessels. Each piece is carved by hand and conceived as both a functional object and a quiet narrative.
Materials: rosewood, with silver and coral inlay.
Handle height: 9.5 cm (entire 89.5 cm)
Finish: waxed
Year: 2025
A signed certificate of authenticity accompanies the piece.
This series began with detailed miniature carvings, born from my long-standing fascination with African cultures — their visual richness, dignity, and quiet strength. What first caught my attention were the everyday details: traditional garments layered with ornament, hairstyles formed from dozens of small braids, handmade jewelry resting directly on the body, and facial profiles shaped by time, place, and tradition.
In these carvings, I work at a deliberately intimate scale, allowing small gestures to carry meaning. The walking stick becomes more than a support — it becomes a companion, a sculptural presence shaped to be held, carried, and lived with.
The figure is carved from rosewood, a material chosen for its density, warmth, and ability to hold fine detail. The surface is finished by hand, allowing the grain of the wood to remain visible and alive.
Another Walking Stick from the Series
Each sculpture in the series is unique. While they share a common language of form and subject, no two pieces are ever repeated.
Artist’s Note
I am interested in objects that sit quietly between disciplines — sculpture and craft, art and daily life. Working at a miniature scale requires patience and attention, but it also creates intimacy. These figures are not meant to impress from afar; they reveal themselves slowly, through touch, proximity, and time.
This approach echoes my work with historical objects: small details often carry the greatest meaning.
👉Availability & Collectors’ Note
This walking stick is a one-of-a-kind work. Pieces from the African Women series are produced individually and in limited number. Once placed in a collection, they are not replicated.
👉Custom Commissions
If you would like to commission a custom miniature sculpture or bring a specific idea to life — whether a functional object or a purely sculptural piece — please get in touch at: info@dsartistrylabs.com
👉Supporting Rare Collections
This series directly supports the Rare Collections Database. Proceeds from the sale of artworks are reinvested into documenting, preserving, and sharing exceptional works of book art with students, educators, scholars, and collectors.
By acquiring or commissioning a piece, you are not only supporting contemporary craftsmanship, but also contributing to the preservation of cultural memory.