For decades, Chitungwiza's stone sculptors relied on tourist traffic and gallery consignment deals to sell their work — a model that collapsed almost overnight when international tourism dried up. Today, many of the same artists are selling directly to collectors in Europe and North America through Instagram, cutting out the intermediaries entirely.

The shift has been financially transformative for some: sculptors describe doubling or tripling their margins by selling directly, and building relationships with repeat collectors who now commission pieces before they're even carved.

It hasn't been an easy transition. Photographing stone sculpture well, shipping heavy pieces internationally, and navigating customs paperwork are all skills the artists have had to learn from scratch, often through trial, error and expensive shipping mistakes.

"Nobody taught us this. We taught each other, one shipping disaster at a time," said one sculptor whose workshop now ships pieces to eleven countries.