'Mochilas Arhuacas' (Handmade bags from hand spun virgin wool)

The Kogui, Arhuaco and Wiwa peoples, direct descendants of the Tairona people, are the indigenous groups that currently inhabit the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, a great mountainous massif that rises up above the Colombian Atlantic coast. A fourth group, the Kankuamo, has been slowly disappearing due to cross-breeding.

These indigenous communities believe that the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is the place of creation and the heart of the world, where all things were born, and is therefore a sacred place, and the fate of the world depends upon the care given to it. If its heart is weakened, life is doomed to disappear.

----------------------------

Since the beginning of the world, the Universal Mother organized the task of weaving. She gave the loom to men, and the weaving of bags to women. Thus, men and women would help each other. When men and women weave they are talking to the Universal Mother. Weavers travel, through the yarn, the history of the world’s creation. They recreate their origin and remember their laws and vital principles. The weaver walks through the world through the yarn. Men walk through it up and down and left to right, along the length and breadth of the loom. Women walk through it in a spiral movement, along the cylindrical body of the bag. With yarn, the “mama” (shaman) ensures the life of new born babies and keeps away bad spirits, yarn is used to take measurements for building houses and temples, yarn is used to tie up the bodies of the deceased and their spirit is safeguarded so they may live on in the memory. Yarn represents the union between the human and the divine, the earthly and the eternal. Yarn is the umbilical cord that joins the Universal Mother with humanity.

The Universal Mother, only possessor of the art of spinning and weaving, took her massive spindle and drove it vertically into the newly created earth.
She put it in the centre of the Sierra Nevada, right through its highest peak, and said “This is ‘Kalvasankua’, the central pillar of the world!”
And saying this she took a strand of cotton thread from the tip of spindle and, with its end, drew a circle around the vertical axis, declaring “This will be the land of my children!”

Kogui creation myth (Fragment)

Tagua / Vegetable Ivory

Tagua is a fruit seed that comes from the Phytelephas aequatorialis palm tree, specie that only grows in the tropical rainforests of South American Pacific coast in the abundant lowlands of Ecuador, Colombia and Panama.

Phytelphas translates elephant plant, derived from the Greek words phyton, which means plant, and elephas meaning elephant making reference to the ivory; although the natives refer to it as the Tagua Tree.

The white hard seeds of this species are also known as vegetable ivory, a sustainable alternative to animal ivory, as the seeds are very similar in structure, texture, hardness and colour, but unlike animal ivory, the collection of the Tagua nuts do not involve harm to the rainforest as it is harvest once the Tagua nuts falls in the grown.

The germination of the tagua seed takes approximately eight months. Early in the seed formation process, the palm carries large round clear gelatinous blobs safely cradled in a radial pattern in their individual natural round holders. Eventually, the gelatinous blobs harden and turn into hard creamy white seeds surrounded by a thin brown skin.

Once the seeds ripen, falls to the ground and are gathered, bagged and transported to be dried and hardened for a minimum of eight weeks up to 2 years after which they become extremely hard (ivory like). The tagua seed needs to be dried naturally to separate it from its shell and to gain the hardness required to be carved; if it is dried in an oven the final product becomes fragile.

The nuts ranges in size and can be processed in different ways, depending on the end product. The dark skin of the tagua can be left on and polished for a brown natural look or a pure white stage can be reached when the dark brown skin is completely removed revealing the underlying creamy white seed beneath. With a bit of polishing the tagua exposed a beautiful ivory colour with a lovely veined design.

It is also possible to cut the seeds into different shapes and forms and dye them in a variety of different natural colours to create unique pieces of jewelry.

Made by hand in harmony with the environment the Tagua Seeds offers an attractive economic alternative for rainforest conservation and as an ethical and sustainable alternative to the sourcing of mammal ivory, from elephants, and other species.

The process of harvesting, designing and creating products out of tagua generates more labor work, helping families of South America and motivating our artisans to create high quality products using sustainable materials in engage with the preservation of the environment.