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These tasteful square boxes are made from polished hard soap stone with brass finishings, and are available in two sizes, small and large.

You can use these for any number of purposes, be it in your bedroom for your jewellery and safety pins, in your study for paper clips, elastic bands and staples or in your bathroom for cotton wool — the possibilities are endless. These lovely understated boxes are tactile and have a nice weighty feel, which make them a great gift.

The stone is mined and carved in western Kenya, where it is the core commodity of the region. It feels like marble, is heavy and perpetually cold to touch. Hard soap stone differs from the more common variety being, as the name suggests, harder because it is extracted from deeper in the rock.

Hard soap stone is more difficult to come by — we found only one supplier in Nairobi, so even in Kenya it is a rarity. You may detect some variations in shading as well as some discolouration, which occur naturally in the rock.

Sizes: Small: L5cm W5cm H3.5cm Medium: L8cm W8cm H4cm