Tagua Town

The Tagua Town animals are individually hand carved by skilled artisan makers in Ecuador. Each one is made from a single tagua seed, harvested from the tagua palm tree, which grows wild in South American rainforests. It is a beautiful, natural and sustainable alternative to plastic. Their architect designed matchbox houses mean that Tagua Town friends can happily live their best lives! Animals come with a leaflet explaining their story in a charming way, where they came from and how they were made.

Just Trade have been working with fair trade projects in Ecuador for more than 10 years. The artisans we work with are very skilled but often struggle to find a route to market for their products. We work in a collaborative way and always look for new ways to develop products and market their work. Tagua Town was born out of a collaboration with Ruth Campbell from Campbell Cadey Architects.

At the Just Trade summer studio sale in Peckham in the summer of 2021, Ruth’s son was spellbound by the tagua animal jewellery we were selling and wanted us to take the chains off so they could be figures. He didn’t want to sleep that night, as he was busy making homes for his new friends! At Just Trade we have always thought these lovely animals deserved cute houses to suit their individual needs. Ruth agreed to take on the challenge and soon Tagua Town was a reality. The rabbit lives in a log cabin with carrots growing in the window boxes. The dog lives in a lovely family home. The guinea pig is a free spirit and loves their caravan with bunting. The hedgehog has a beautiful garden lodge with living roof, whilst the mouse lives in a grand town house, with lots of stairs to run up and down. Last but not least, the tortoise has a traditional thatched cottage … the only twist is the thatch is made from cabbage leaves so he can snack if he is hungry in the night! Each house has a space on the back for the new owner to name their tagua friend, whilst the accompanying mini leaflet explains the story from seed to animal. Here is the story .............................. " Hello, I’m an animal from the Tagua Town collectibles and I live in this cute house, designed especially for me by the lovely Ruth at Campbell Cadey Architects. Once upon a time, I wasn’t an animal at all…. I was a seed, a real live tagua seed, growing on the Tagua Palm tree in the Amazon Rainforest in Ecuador, South America. Then, one day… I fell out of the palm tree and lay on the ground for what seemed like ages. Eventually, I was picked up and taken to a workshop in Ecuador, where a man called Ronald saw my potential. He started carefully carving and polishing me until I was transformed into this amazing Tagua Town animal!

I liked being a seed, but I love being an animal more! I never thought I could be so beautiful. "