Articles Handicrafts - Carvieira Handicrafts Ecuador South America

Article Tagua Nut: the Vegetable Ivory of Ecuador, South-America

Tagua Nut Vegetable Ivory

A tagua nut is a seed that comes from the Tagua palm tree (Phytelephas Aequatorialis) in Ecuador. The female palms bear large woody, burrlike fruits, each containing several seeds about the size of hen's eggs. The immature seeds are gelatinous and edible. These are the ivory nuts, white or cream in color and very hard. Known in the trade also as vegetable ivory, the substance is used as a substitute for ivory and has long been carved into curios for tourists. Its commercial value originated
in the mid-19th cent. when African ivory began to grow scarce. Tagua became a commodity of considerable importance, great quantities being exported to the United States and Europe for the manufacture of buttons and other small articles.

It was largely supplanted by less expensive synthetic materials, although the demand has been rising in recent years.
The female tagua palms bear large woody, burrlike fruits, each containing several seeds about the size of hen's eggs.

The immature seeds are gelatinous and edible. These are the ivory nuts, white or cream in color and very hard.
It takes about 4 days to kiln-dry the nuts. Ecuadorian artisans find it is easier to work the nut if it is only dried about 70%. That is still pretty hard. After completing the tagua figurine, they dry it further. This extra drying helps to insure that it will not crack later.

Figurines Handcarved Tagua Nut Galapagos Islands

To achieve this extra step of drying, they put the pieces under paper or a towel and shine heat lamps onto the covering.
This is similar to incubating a chicken egg - not too hot, just nice and warm.

The tagua is versatile and can be processed in various ways, depending on the design of the end product. The dark skin of
the tagua is left on and polished for the chocolate or coffee bean look. Another technique is polishing the tagua until a lovely veined design is exposed, revealing the underlying creamy white seed beneath the dark tagua skin. With various techniques
of coloring, the artisans create amazing combinations of colours and they design: jewelry, keyrings and figurines.

Depending on the desired look, the white tagua also may be fried, resulting in a caramel-like appearance. For this effect,
the nuts are literally fried in oil in a frying pan. This technique is used primarily to make jewelry and carved figurines of animals and plants.

*Information obtained from various articles in internet.

Visit our catalogue of: Necklaces with carved tagua pendants.

Visit our catalogue of: Bracelets Tagua Nut and other seeds.

Visit our catalogue of: Earrings & Necklaces of Tagua Asai Bombona and other exotics seeds. and other seeds.

Article Amazon Painting: Art Indigenous with Chambira Palm and natural pigments.

Painting Amazon

This painting was designed by indigenous in the Amazon Region of Ecuador, in a canvas obtained from the leave of the Chambira Palm.To prepare the canvas, the indigenous collect the leaves in best conditions (no holes, no broken) and then they bit these leaves until desintegrate and form a creamy past. This material is expose to the sunlight by 7 days until that it be converted in a resistent and flashy canvas wich they handmade clothe, accesories and painting.

Painting in Chambira palm canvas

To paint on the canvas, the indigenous of the Amazon use natural pigments made with special material obtained from the ground. In this picture you can apreciate the posterior part of the painting. Its texture, flexibility and durability permit that the colour of the pigments be very absorved and permanent. This is an excellent art work handmade with simple materials of the nature and it reproduce an cotidiane escene of the live in a typic house of the jungle region.

Unfortunately we don't have available more paintings for sale.

The Panama Hats are handmade in Ecuador