Ande Axelrod returned home from a vacation in Ecuador with a grocery bag full of beads.
"Let's see what we can do with this," she said, plunking her sack on the table in front of her longtime colleague and jewelry design partner Cathy Beaumont.
The souvenir beads were carved from the nut harvested from the tagua palm, which grows in the tropical rainforests of South America. The tagua nut - sometimes called vegetable ivory because of its hard, white surface - is a popular renewable material for making jewelry, sculptures and handicrafts.
"We just experimented until we found some designs that we really thought worked for North American styles," Beaumont says. Pleased with their results, the design pair is currently focused on their tagua collection, which they produce under their Treats Designs label. They source their beads from Sosote, Ecuador and create necklaces, bracelets and earrings out of Axelrod's home studio in North Vancouver.
"It's really terrific material," Beaumont says of tagua. "It's fully sustainable because the nuts are harvested from the palm so the tree's not cut down. Also, by working with partners in Ecuador we're promoting small-scale business."
The beads are also very durable. "We have accidentally dropped these beads on linoleum floors and cement floors and they bounce right back," she laughs.
Tagua can be stained with dyes to achieve vibrant hues, giving the beads an almost synthetic appearance on first glance. On closer inspection, however, the unique grain of the palm nut shows through revealing its natural origins. Axelrod is a professional graphic designer and Beaumont works in communications for non-profit organizations. They launched Treats Designs back in the fall of 2011.
"We were just having a conversation and I was telling her about how I was really looking at getting into doing some jewelry-making and, coincidentally, she had been thinking of the same thing," says Beaumont, who is a member of Terminal City Glass Co-op and had a foundation in glass bead-making before joining creative forces with Axelrod. In addition to tagua, Treats Designs also produces a glass collection and works in aluminum, "which has the ability to be both really, really colourful and almost weightless," Beaumont says.
"Our jewelry is colourful. Colour is the central thing of what we do. And I don't think anybody has accused us of being delicate," she adds. "The pieces have presence, but they're never overwhelming."
Beaumont was drawn to jewelry design, in part, because of the way certain accessories can transform the look and mood of the wearer.
"You can be wearing head-to-toe black, and if you're wearing a really nice piece of jewelry, it lifts your mood, it lifts your spirit, it just completes the outfit," Beaumont says. "It's a little indulgent. Nobody needs jewelry in order to live, but it is incredibly helpful for your personal sense of well-being."
Treats Designs jewelry is currently on display at the Gift Box at CityScape Community Art Space in Lower Lonsdale. It is also available for sale at 32 Books Gallery in Edgemont Village and End of the Line General Store in Lynn Valley. Pieces range in price from $20 to $65. For more information, visit treatsdesigns.com.
