The Açaí seeds we use come from the Euterpe Oleracea, a species of palm tree cultivated mainly for the fruit it produces, which has become very popular in juices and food throughout the Americas because of its nutritional and anti-oxidant properties.  The tree mainly grows in tropical swamps and floodplains.  The palm is tall and slender, growing to a height of about 50 – 100 feet.  The tree is a very important resource for the communities, as the leaves can be made into hats, mats, baskets, brooms, and roof thatch for homes, and the trunk wood is used for construction.  The fruit is small, round, and dark purple, about the size of a small blueberry.  The seed itself is about 80% of the fruit.  Once the fruit is removed, the remaining seed is dried and cleaned and ready to become jewelry!

Our jewelry also uses the Tagua nut from the Tagua Palm tree, Phytelephas Aequatorialis, found in the tropical rainforests of South America.  It is also known as vegetable ivory, as it is similar in look and feel to elephant ivory.  A fun fact, in one year, the Tagua palm can produce the same amount of ivory as one female elephant can in her entire lifetime.  And, before the invention of plastic, this ivory nut was used to create some of the finest buttons in the clothing industry.  The most common type of Tagua Palm grows to about 20 to 30 feet in the damp areas of the tropical forests.  The nuts grow inside of large clusters, which then must be separated to take out the individual nuts.  The nut shells are used as animal feed, and the palms of the tree are also used as roof thatch. When the pod is harvested, it then must be dried for 4 – 8 weeks in order to become hard.  Then the shells can be removed to create a polished surface, or only partially removed to create our rustic look.

The Jaboncillo seeds we use in our jewelry are from the Sapindus Saponaria tree.  The tree’s pulpy fruit, which is about ¾ inches in diameter, has a single black seed and also creates a thick juice which can be used as a liquid soap.  This liquid is actually used by the indigenous in Ecuador as a natural soap, hence it’s name “jaboncillo” which means “small bar of soap” in Spanish.  The tree can grow up to 80 feet tall, and is an evergreen that can be found in the tropics of the Americas.

The Pambil seed, which comes from the Iritartea Deltoidea, is an essential resource for the artisans in Ecuador.  The seed is used to create jewelry, but the wood is also used by the indigenous cultures to construct their houses.  These trees are tall trees, part of the canopy of the rainforest, growing to 65 – 115 feet tall.  They are easily recognizable because of the big bulge in the middle of their trunk and the stilt roots which form a dense cone at the base of the tree, making the tree look like it’s roots are above ground.  The seed is a large round seed, about 1 inch in diameter, and is commonly used to create jewelry by the indigenous cultures.

Coconut grows naturally in most tropical countries.  Given Ecuador is on the equator, it has many cocount trees in the tropical areas at low elevation on the coast.  We use the dried shells from these coconuts to create our beads in various shapes and sizes!