the beginning
of a beautiful
human and
entrepreneurial adventure
of a beautiful human and entrepreneurial adventure
The beginning of a beautiful adventure…
The Tawa B’Art adventure began with my encounter of South America. As a tourism professional, for five years I worked, lived and explored the region from the deepest Amazon rainforest of Ecuador to the magnificent glaciar of Patagonia in Argentina. I was immediately enchanted by the human-made treasures of the local handicrafts: elegant handmade Panama hats, beautiful and colorful handicrafts, outstanding weaving work… And I especially fell in love with the vegetable ivory, also called tagua or corozo. These tropical seeds are skilfully sculpted into beads and decorative objects thanks to the high level of expertise of Ecuadorian craftsmen. With these organic palm tree seeds we make beautiful natural jewelry. Since my first trip in Ecuador ten years ago Tagua has stayed a mysterious material, but a material that gathers all the fascinating values of South America : incredible exoticism, full of nature with vibrant colors.
In this South American adventure I also fell under the spell of my companion from St Barthélemy, so life brought me to the West Indies. Today, from my little island of adoption, I design my jewelry and make people discover this incredible material that is vegetable ivory.
In our busy modern lives, we often forget ourselves. Tawa B’Art was born out of our need to reconnect with Nature, our need to escape and find serenity.
From a mother to a daughter, the desire to transmit
Tawa B’Art is also the responsibility and the will as a mother to leave the greenest planet possible to my daughter, the awareness that we have only one Earth, the one we will leave to the next generations.
The name, Tawa B’Art
Tawa B’Art was born from Tawa which comes from the original name of the vegetable ivory in Spanish: la tagua, which is pronounced “tawa”. B’Art was chosen for “St Barth” as we call our little island, and for the “art” that we find in each jewel, each unique accessory of Tawa B’Art.
Like a precious gift from nature, wearing a Tawa B’Art jewelry reconnects you to Nature and to yourself.
What is vegetable ivory?
It is also called tagua, or corozo, it is a seed that comes from a palm tree from South America, the Phytelephas macrocarpa palm, which grows in the shade of the primary tropical forest. There can be about 50 seeds in the fruit or bug from this tree. The young palm tree needs more than 10 years to produce its vegetable ivory fruits.
From natural material to jewel…
At first liquid, and even edible, the seed takes 2 to 3 months to dry in the sun. Then, it becomes very hard and it is at this moment that we carve it like wood: we cut, carve, polish and color it to create TAWA B’Art jewelry and accessories!
Once polished, the seed strongly looks like animal ivory both in color and appearance: hard, white and opaque. Therefore it is called “vegetable ivory”, for its similarity with animal ivory, but it is much lighter than elephant ivory!
Once polished, the seed strongly looks like animal ivory both in color and appearance: hard, white and opaque. Therefore it is called “vegetable ivory”, for its similarity with animal ivory, but it is much lighter than elephant ivory!