Tagua (Vegetable Ivory) Jewellery
Our collection of tagua or vegetable ivory jewellery is made for us by skilled artesans in Ecuador. The tagua nut comes from a palm tree that grows wild in the rainsforests of Latin America. If you look at the photo gallery on the Tumi home page you will find a photograph showing the unusual spiny seed pod the nut grows in as well as a photograph of the artesans who make our jewellery and carved animals. Different parts of the tagua palm can be used for thatching, food and even the roots have medicinal qualities, but one of the best things about tagua is that it looks just like ivory when it is carved, hence the alternative name of vegetable ivory. This means it can be used to replace ivory, thus helping to protect wildlife. Also, since the palm trees grow wild, it offers an economic incentive to leave the rainforests as they are.
Our tagua jewellery collection includes tagua necklaces in differeing styles, tagua earrings and vegetable ivory bracelets, both natural tagua and in the bright colours of dyed tagua. Each piece of tagua jewellery comes with an information label explaining what it is made of and where it is from.
