Pyrography on Tagua Nut

Tagua nuts are actually the seeds of certain palm- type trees growing in South America. They are extremely hard and can be carved into highly detailed and decorative items, sliced, dyed, drilled and polished to a satin smooth finish. The natural colour is an ivory white, and the colour and texture are almost identical to ivory, which has resulted in the common term 'vegetable ivory'. Dyed slices are now widely used in contemporary jewellery making as an ethical and sustainable alternative to plastic . The nuts/seeds fall to the ground naturally and are gathered sustainably. 

    My own interest in Tagua is as a pyrography jewellery maker. I've been creating wooden pendants for years, using hard light coloured woods like Buxus, Birch and Hazel. Crucial for me is to work on a hard,  smooth and fine surface, required in order to attain the very fine detail I strive for when creating jewellery. 

    Tagua certainly meets these requirements for a hard, smooth light coloured surface..however, it is by no means an easy process to create pyrography drawings on Tagua. The nut burns differently to wood, and requires different techniques.

  The most notable difference is the way the surface reacts to the application of the hot tip compared with wood. Tagua has the slightly disconcerting habit of 'melting' as heat is applied and then immediately hardening again..so that one is almost working on a finely shifting surface. Only very low heat can be used, which means extremely slow progress. This strange 'melting' effect can be exploited in creating certain effects - animal fur or feathers work well for example,  but clean straight lines are difficult to achieve and shading is much harder than it is on wood. It is almost impossible to achieve a dark background as the heat required simply melts the surface. Nevertheless,  if the design is adapted to utilise the best properties of the tagua, quite pleasing results may be achieved. Once burned, the jewellery is extremely tough and durable with a unique appeal.

  Here are some of my own designs,  hand drawn, using Tagua slices..