Olive Wood, Red Jade gemstone and Venetian be

Welcome to Ellenis workshop. As a store we also exist on the Greek island of Lesvos, Our workshop, home and small store are located in a tranquil olive grove just outside the town of Molyvos in a place called Eftalou. Our aim is to provide high quality hand crafted gifts and sculptures to our customers, weather it be on the internet or here in our olive grove. Ellenis Workshop,was established in 2006 in Molivos,the ancient hill town on the Greek island of Lesvos,to feature the unique olive-wood sculptures and paintings of local artist Eric Kempson To these we added a stunning range of locally hand-crafted olive-wood and gemstone necklaces & earrings, each with its unique beautifully grained olive-wood. We now also have an exciting and exclusive range of olive-wood gifts to suit all pockets, all individually hand-made by us in our workshop/ home. We are Philippa and Eric Kempson, who settled here from Britain in 1999. And Elleni? - she is our daughter. Olive Trees The millions of olive trees on Lesvos have always been a mainstay of the islands economy, providing food and oil for home consumption and export, animal fodder and bedding, and wood for winter fuel. This amazing tree is very hardy: drought-, disease- and fire-resistant, it can live to a great age. Its root system is robust and capable of regenerating the tree even if the above-ground structure is destroyed. The older an olive tree is the broader and more gnarled its trunk appears. Many olive trees in our groves are said to be hundreds of years old, while an age of 2,000 years for a number trees has been verified scientifically. Olive wood is an extremely difficult wood to work; we were once told by an Italian sculptor that what Eric dose is impossible! A few years ago we provided a young couple with two blocks of wood; they wanted to send them to a craftsman in Hawaii who makes gold and wood wedding rings. They returned to Lesvos for their honeymoon, thanked us for helping and bringing a message from the Hawaiian craftsman stating he will never work with olive wood again. He later amended his advertising that said I will work with any wood he added except olive This dense and intricately grained wood, much of it centuries old, is now being used by Eric to create his unique sculptures, as well as hand-made jewellery, key-rings, combs, hair ornaments and other exclusive gifts. Eric is happy to take commissions and special orders.