Ecuadorianhands
Rough_Rock
- Joined
- May 24, 2017
- Messages
- 1
You might ask what is Exotic Ivory? Well, let me tell you that in tropical and humid mountains of Ecuador there is a singular plant called Tagua, also called exotic ivory or vegetable ivory too. Wait a minute...! A tree plant called vegetable ivory!? Is that possible? Well, to give you an scientific explanation: Tagua because of its morphology looks like palms, but is not a botanically palmácea but belongs to the Ciclantáceas family.
Its scientific name is Phytelephas Aequatorialis. Etymologically from the Greek PhytelephasPhyton = plant and Elephas = ivory, ie plant ivory or vegetable ivory, or Tagua or Exotic Ivory. Wow, so many names for a palm tree. Tagua is remarkably similar to animal ivory in both looks and feel. Tagua is durable and easily carved, and it even mimics the porosity of animal ivory. The biggest difference: Elephant do not have to die.
The use of Tagua Beads increments the interest to protect Tagua Palms and therefore the Rain Forest. To get good nuts, mocochas (bag where the nuts are inside) have to drop off the palm by themselves. To protect quality of beads, palms must be taken care of, reforestation and so on. It is a cycle! And finally we can make the Tagua Jewelry.
Well, I don't pretent to bore you, so let's skip this and go to the interesting part. The true is that this material is hard and looks like animal ivory, and it is completely natural. Therefore, we have ivory, but elephants don't have to die. How cool is that, ah?
Tagua is so versatile that we can use it to manufacture decorative figurines, Smoking Pipes, buttons for the fashion industry, and also beads for jewelry making, which is very suitable for women in different countries of the world.
Fair Trade?
People always ask us whether the beads are fair trade. Not only do our customers ask this, some have turned up to inspect our factory! To be honest, we not know much about the trading within the rain forest areas as it is informal and not yet regulated. For an idea: " A family gathers 2 pounds of nuts, gets a boat across the river, gets to the town and sell it to local merchants." From that point though, trading is traceable. We pay a fair price and treat our workers fairly.
I'd like to take this opportunity to let you people know what the real process to manufacture the wonderful tagua beads is... Shall begin!?
Its scientific name is Phytelephas Aequatorialis. Etymologically from the Greek PhytelephasPhyton = plant and Elephas = ivory, ie plant ivory or vegetable ivory, or Tagua or Exotic Ivory. Wow, so many names for a palm tree. Tagua is remarkably similar to animal ivory in both looks and feel. Tagua is durable and easily carved, and it even mimics the porosity of animal ivory. The biggest difference: Elephant do not have to die.
The use of Tagua Beads increments the interest to protect Tagua Palms and therefore the Rain Forest. To get good nuts, mocochas (bag where the nuts are inside) have to drop off the palm by themselves. To protect quality of beads, palms must be taken care of, reforestation and so on. It is a cycle! And finally we can make the Tagua Jewelry.
Well, I don't pretent to bore you, so let's skip this and go to the interesting part. The true is that this material is hard and looks like animal ivory, and it is completely natural. Therefore, we have ivory, but elephants don't have to die. How cool is that, ah?
Tagua is so versatile that we can use it to manufacture decorative figurines, Smoking Pipes, buttons for the fashion industry, and also beads for jewelry making, which is very suitable for women in different countries of the world.
Fair Trade?
People always ask us whether the beads are fair trade. Not only do our customers ask this, some have turned up to inspect our factory! To be honest, we not know much about the trading within the rain forest areas as it is informal and not yet regulated. For an idea: " A family gathers 2 pounds of nuts, gets a boat across the river, gets to the town and sell it to local merchants." From that point though, trading is traceable. We pay a fair price and treat our workers fairly.
I'd like to take this opportunity to let you people know what the real process to manufacture the wonderful tagua beads is... Shall begin!?
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