All entries for Thursday 28 July 2005

Dos Mangas – Artesan working with Tagua Nuts (22 de Julio)

The village has a workshop for sustainable ecotourism working with tagua that was setup 5 years ago with help from a Canadian donation. The village of Dos Mangas started working with Tagua nuts 10 years ago when the village was hit by water shortage in the area which damaged the farming.

Tagua is often called vegetable ivory because it is a forest product (a seed from the palm tree) and can be found in most parts of South America. It has mainly been used for button making in the 1920[s in which 1/5 of the US buttons were made of tagua.

Tagua grows in Dos Mangas communal forests. Orginally the nut is a liguid fruit that starts to grow. It stays inside the tree until it ripens and the liquid becomes solid. Then it falls from the tree and can be used after 7 months of drieing for tagua handicrafts. It can dry faster by lightbulbs but the workshop does not have an industrilised dryer unlike the big factories. Depending on the design the workshop engraves between 24–48 nuts in a day. They are a group of 5–6 workers (10 during the high season). When they are not working with the tagua the community is farming.

Normally it is only the men working with tagua, but when there are large orders the women work too, mostly in the simple tasks (sanding and shining). Only two women know a little of how to engrave.

Tina and Kath

: 28 Jul 2005 23:55 |  Comments (7) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Dos Mangas Community (21 de Julio)

Dos Mangas is a small village located 6 km inland from Manglaralto, situated on the south coast of Ecuador. The village of Dos Mangas has a population approaching 1000 people and is named after the two nearby rivers. The community has a primary school but no secondary school, a public health center, IESS. It has no telephone lines, telephone boxes, internet connection, or mobile signals. These facilities can only be used in Manglaralto.

The community developed approximately 70 years ago with the arrival of a couple of families to the area. The area was all previously untouched tropical dry forest. The families came to start farming in the area. However in over the past two decades the land has become unproductive, lacking nutrients and the rain has not been dependable. As a result the community has been turning to the production of artesanias, handicrafts, such as straw-weaving and carving tagua nuts, vegetable ivory. The following entries explain more about these handicrafts.

Tina and Kath

: 28 Jul 2005 00:15 |  Comments (4) |  Close comments |  Report a problem