Tagua Nuts

[EcuadorianHands.com]

Hello! I am new member and I am from Ecuador South America. I'd like to share with all you people about a carving material called Tagua! which is very nice...

TAGUA or EXOTIC IVORY is the dried and polished nuts of several South American palms. 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. Versatility is only one of Tagua virtues. It is also infinitely renewable. In a single year, a female Tagua tree can produce 20 pounds of nuts-that's about the amount of ivory on an average female elephant. The elephant, however, yields its ivory only once; the tree continues producing nuts year after year. In 1865, a ship sailing from South America to Germany used a load of Tagua nuts as ballast. When the vessel docked in Hamburg, curious stevedores began playing with the Tagua and noticed its ivory like characteristics. Tagua quickly became one of Ecuador's leading exports to Europe. Craftsmen used the nuts to fashion everything from chess pieces and dice to buttons and umbrella handles. After the World War II, competition from an inexpensive new synthetic called plastic wipes out the Tagua trade. Now that the world is waking up to the growing environmental problems which face our planet today and that environmental concerns are getting higher on the world's agenda that ever before, the use of Tagua is getting renewed. Commerce in vegetable ivory is helping foster respect for Rain Forests in Ecuador, and it is doing so through the nondestructive exploitation of a renewable resource.

There are many families distributed in poor communities of rural areas of Ecuador where Tagua grows. Families that are eager to get a better way of living and obtain enough economical resources to give a fair education to their sons. Families which are eager to share with the world the beauty of their work. Please visit EcuadorianHands.com !

We can supply you with the nuts for carving as well as figurines. Ship directly from Ecuador to your door, Worldwide! @ EcuadorianHands.com

[EcuadorianHands.com]

I hope you’ll enjoy this video about Tagua, The Ivory of Ecuador. It is in spanish only, but the scenes and footages are amazing. I promise I will post the english version, or at least with english subtitles very soon.

http://www.ecuadorianhands.com/blog-...ry-of-ecuador/

Please register to keep you posted about beuties of Ecuador….

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

It is not necessary nor recommended that you keep posting this same post,,,it wastes our time and space...one post is sufficient!

[EcuadorianHands.com]

Thanks your message.
I posted this message only 1 time in each different forums/post where people were asking what tagua is.

Sorry, if this cause any inconvenience instead of the opposite.

Thanks,

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

Its all one forum, just different threads and most people if not all that come here read all the threads anyway....thanks