TAGUA

The process for making TAGUA jewelry is quite interesting as it take several months from the time the tagua nut is harvested until the final product is crafted and ready to sell.

The tagua nut (sometimes spelled "tawa") is a dried seed from the tagua palm tree. The tagua palm grows in the tropical rain forests of South America (Ecuador, Colombia, Peru and Brazil).

Tagua is also known as natural ivory or vegetable ivory due to its similarity to ivory—it is hard, unbreakable, resistant and beautiful. Tagua, unlike ivory, is natural and comes from plants, however. It is an excellent alterantive to ivory since elephants don't have to be harmed in order to harvest it!

The tagua nut is encased in a fruit, each of which carries multiples nuts. Each nut has a shell that contains the seed. This seed is the size of a chicken egg and is covered by a thin brown skin.

The nuts must be sun-dried for 4 to 6 months before they can be worked with. Once dried, tagua can be carved into various shapes and polished to a bright shine. Tagua's natural color is white but is easily dyed and can, therefore, be found in a wide variety of bright and pastel colors.