The villages around the West Bank, particularly in the Gurna area, have been producing alabaster carvings for sale to tourists since the 19th century — and the craft predates tourism by several thousand years. The workshops are family-run, using hand tools and foot-powered lathes to produce everything from thumb-sized scarabs to large vases.
Visiting a workshop is a useful counterpoint to the bazaar shops on the East Bank, where you cannot easily tell where anything comes from. Here you can watch carvers at work, see the range of quality from rough tourist stock to genuinely fine pieces, and buy directly from the makers. Prices are no lower than in Luxor's bazaars — the tourism economy is well-established — but you have more chance of understanding what you are paying for. The better workshops are on the roads between the West Bank ferry landing and the main temple sites; ask at your hotel for a current recommendation.