Free Shipping! For orders
over $50 
Wow Imports offers an exclusive collection of personalized Name Jewelry in 14k gold and sterling silver including personalized rings and personalized nameplate necklaces
Vegetable Ivory Tagua Nut Carvings
The
tagua nut or vegetable ivory nut comes from a palm like
tree called Phytelephas Macrocarpa Palmae or Phytelephas
Equatorialis. The tree grows to a height of 20 to 40
feet tall in several tropical rainforest regions in
South America including Southern Panama, Columbia,
Ecuador and Peru. The tagua nut averages the size of a
small hen's egg. Chemically the tagua nut is pure
cellulose and before the nut matures has a milky sweet
liquid in the center with a jelly like consistency. In
fact, the tagua nuts are sold at the market to eat. The
tagua nuts grow in large pods called a cabeza. The
cazeba takes a number of years to grow and ripen. When
the cabeza ripens, it falls to the ground. The tagua
nuts are gathered and dried for a number of weeks after
which they become very hard. The color of the tagua nut
is an ivory amber color and looks and has the texture of
ivory, hence the name vegetable ivory. In fact, the
cellular structure of the tagua nut is similar to ivory
but is more dense and resilient. The tagua nut is also
softer than ivory and has a void in the center.
Crafters
and carvers have known about the vegetable ivory tagua
nut for years and is so much like ivory that
unscrupulous sources pass off the carvings as animal
ivory. Some leave a small part of the shell on the tagua
nut carving in order to easily identify it as vegetable
ivory.
Tagua
nuts have been used by carvers in the making of jewelry,
dice, chess pieces and dominoes, cane handles, pipes,
mah-jongg tiles and scrimshaw. The tagua nut also easily
absorbs dyes so can be colored as well. From the late
1800's until the early 1900's around 20% of all buttons
made in the U.S. were made from the tagua nut. Tagua
nuts and products made up 5 million dollars of Ecuador's
exports. With the development of synthetic materials
like plastic the tagua nut industry was doomed.
Recently
the tagua nut has been making a comeback because of the
near extinction of animal ivory and the present ban on
animal ivory imports. Unlike animal ivory, which
required killing an animal and created an illegal and
dangerous trade and cruelly decimated large populations
of animals, the vegetable ivory tagua nut is a natural,
renewable and sustainable resource, harvested from the
floor of the rainforest. It also provides livelihood for
thousands living in these regions.
Wow!
Imports purchases vegetable tagua nut carvings from a
group of a dozen carvers located in Southwest Ecuador
near the Pacific coast. Most of the carvers are
originally from the Northwest coast. Some of the carvers
are college educated. They are fairly paid, receive
benefits and are provided with lunch.
Wow! Imports tagua nut animal carvings and Christmas tree ornaments from Ecuador are among the finest. Some of these animals have been specially carved for us.
The bases of our tagua nut carvings are made from polished or rough whole or partial tagua nuts or coconut shells.
As our vegetable tagua nut carvings are handmade the sizes, colors and shapes may vary slightly from those shown.
Many of the tagua nut animal carvings are made from more than one piece. If a piece becomes disconnected it is suggested to reconnect it using white framers glue or super glue. Super glue works best on a rough surface so if the surfaces to be connected are smooth they should be roughed up with sandpaper.