Before becoming beautiful and artistic jewelry artworks, these shape-forms were the coveted vegetable ivory: tagua. This eco friendly material undergoes a process full of art and constant work to finally turn into the not yet well-known tagua beads.Recognized around the world for its beauty, tagua requires the following steps to obtain the final result.From tagua mococha after two months of ripening is the dry nut. After harvesting we peel the vegetable ivory; this process takes two to three minutes per unit, depending on how hard the crust is. After this we selected the best.
The nut is cut into slices when dried. Then passes a sander with water and place at least fifty kilos for a period of 12 to 16 hours. After this time the chips are removed and exposed to the sun for drying lasting one to two days depending on weather.
When the chips are dried, they can give desired shape. For coloring aniline is poured into hot water throwing chips about twenty minutes, then must be dried from four to eight days for the color to penetrate. This technique is for the economic line 1st class tagua beads. For premium class of tagua beads, different techniques are used for coloring and finishing is used.
Once dried, they pass a grinding machine mixed with cream which gives a special glow.
Finally the artisans are ready to make the tagua jewelry that covers various parts of the world, teaching the skill of the hands of Ecuador.
