Artisanal Jewelry from Cocoa Seeds

Saturday, October 18, 2014 — Our E.dúcate hostess treated us this weekend to a visit to the shop of a local artisan.  Herlinda Gonzales' shop — located near the Ecuadorian beach resort of Mangaralto — sits in a rural neighborhood that neither Google's nor Apple's mapping applications recognize. 

Near the beach towns of Manglaralto and Montañita, the Artisanal shop was "off the map", as far as Apple's and Google's map locations are concerned.

The Gonzalez' neighborhood consists of many such shops. Many are dual-purpose dwellings. The workshop sits on the ground floor, and living spaces upstairs. The tropical climate does not require them to be heavily insulated, or completely closed in.

The Gonzalez' shop is located in a rural neighborhood containing other shops.

The Gonzalez' operation is completely organic. They receive raw materials from the rainforest. Their raw stock consists mostly of seeds. They add silver wire stock, elastic, and other connecting materials. The entire process occurs in their workshop.

They perform their work using common power tools.  These include grinders, sanders, and drills. These tools break down the the raw materials — tropical plant seeds — into pieces of the size and shape of their finished products.  They then polish the pieces to a high-gloss finish.  Finally, they paint and assemble them.

Herlinda Gonzalez and her husband use common wood-shop power tools to produce finished jewelry from raw, rain-forest products.

Tagua nuts are one of their main products. Tagua nuts are rock-hard. Each is about the size of a walnut. The "raw" tagua nuts dry out in the sun for eight months before they are ready for use. Once properly aged, the Gonzales' remove their outer shells. The inner nut has a creamy color, and the texture and shape of an animal brain.

Seeds from Tagua plams dry in the sun for eight months before they are ready to become jewelry.

Tagua trees are "cousins" to cocoa treas. The Gonzalez' work with cocoa nuts when available. Having other obvious uses, cocoa nuts are often unavailable.

The Gonzalez cut the round nuts mostly into flat shapes. The highly polished pieces are painted with bright colors. After polishing, the finished products shine with a high gloss.

A finished bracelet manufactured from Tagua seeds.

Guaya oro — Guayan gold — is one of the other raw materials. These nuts are about the size of a peanut. They become shiny, bright-colored beads for necklaces and earrings. 

Hermanas de pendientes — CSC colleagues Aideen Dunne and Sophie Asmus show off freshly made earrings from "Guay Oro" seeds.