This is a handcrafted linocut print inspired by Cloud Princess, a folktale from the Kingdom of Eswatini (formerly known as Swaziland). This story is about a Cloud who falls in love with a poor farmer who doesn’t believe he is worthy of her. The folktale celebrates this Divine Sky Goddess who rains on everyone with her fearless generosity. We do not have to earn her generosity, she rains regardless of our deeds and wrongdoings, our successes or failures, our brokenness or beauty. . .perhaps this is what honoring the Sacred Feminine means: honoring the whole, all of what is and will be.

DETAILS: The linocut design includes Cloud Princess and a variety of native staple crops grown in Estwani including maize, cotton and sorghum along with an Estwani farming landscape, two small hares and birds.

PRINT SIZE: 12" x 12"
PAPER SIZE: 15" x 15"

MATERIALS: This artwork is hand carved and hand printed with archival quality Cranfield safewash (non-toxic) ink on Strathmore archival 100% cotton acid-free printmaking paper. Strathmore Paper Mills are located in Massachusetts where my studio is.

GIFT IDEAS: This would make a wonderful piece of art for a children's bedroom or nursery room, or a heirloom artwork for a family room or children's section of a library or classroom. It would also be a wonderful gift for folktale and fairytale lovers, anyone who loves nature or gifted in celebration of someone whose generosity is like that of this African Cloud Goddess. It would also be a wonderful gift for a lover or spouse. Please check out these free optional gift wrapping options.

RESOURCES & INSPIRATION: Cloud Princess is featured in Kahran & Regis Bethencourt’s book Crowned: Magical Folk and Fairytales from the Diaspora which includes classic well known fairytales as well as fairytales from the African diaspora and from the African continent. It is also a folktale featured in Nelson Mandela's Favorite African Folktales.

ECO-PACKAGING: This print will be carefully rolled in Kraft paper, packed in a recycled clear bag and shipped in a recycled cylindrical tube. FeathersandFolktales uses eco-friendly packaging supplies from EcoEnclose and YazooMills. A one-page insert including a description of the folktale is included with the print.

Feathers & Folktales is a woman-owned, Massachusetts-based art shop offering handcrafted linocut prints of timeless folktales from around the world that remind us of our ancient kinship with the wild. These archival quality linocut prints are a labor of love: they are 100% conceived, designed, carved, inked, pulled and packaged by hand for you from a small home studio. Featuring animals and magical creatures from folklore alongside wide variety of botanical elements, each piece contains a precious offering from the past, a mythos, that can enliven our sense of enchantment with the natural world.