The Tagua is a unique plant that comes from the tropical and humid mountains of Ecuador, grows wild in forests called Taguales, is white, hard, heavy, smooth and opaque but shiny when polished; It is odorless and tasteless but not elastic or incorruptible like real ivory.
Similar in its morphology to palm trees, it takes 14 to 15 years from its planting until the first fruits can be harvested and production is not interrupted in its lifetime. These Taguales offer approximately 3 crops per year, in these crops 15 to 16 heads are produced, also known as mococha. In each mococha we can get approximately 20 Tagua seeds to make handmade jewelry.
From the collection point, a detailed process is carried out to convert each of the Tagua seeds into beads. Once they're ready we start with the classification of each bead to create the handmade jewelry. Depending on the design of the jewel to be created, the pieces to be used are selected; For example, on a necklace an average of 20 to 25 pieces are used.
The use of Tagua beads increases interest in this plant and benefits the tropical rainforest. In addition, due to the non-biodegradable nature of most plastics, we would combat the increasing contamination, since some of these plastics take up to 150 years to degrade. It also allows the inhabitants of rural areas to make the collection of natural ivory an economic source and ecological activity (without cutting down trees since the seed falls on its own), revaluing and promoting its conservation.
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