This is one of my new pieces of art. I started by drawing the portrait on a piece of paper. Then I redraw the portrait on a Tagua nut.

The Tagua nut is a renewable rainforest crop used in place of ivory, thus called Vegetable Ivory.  The Tagua Nut is the dried seed pod of the Tagua Palm tree. These seeds are harvested in the rainforests of Ecuador. While it may take many years for them to form, the harvesting does no harm to the trees allowing for many years of productive growth.  Once the nuts are harvested and dried, they form a very hard material very similar to animal Ivory in appearance and workability. Covered in a tough outer skin which when peeled reveals an Ivory-White interior.

Once I re-drew the image on the Tagua nut, I engraved it. Then I ‘pyrographed’ it or burned it with a burning tool to increase the intensity of shadow areas. Once finished, the image was sealed and a leather necklace was added.