When nature gives its colors to jewelry

When looking at certain pieces of jewelry made from seeds and pits, it is often their colors that first catch our eye.

In Europe, where we are less familiar with these materials and their use in Brazilian craftsmanship, one might easily think that these colors were obtained with industrial dyes.

And yet, this is not always the case.

Some seeds and pits naturally possess amazing colors. Others can be hand-dyed using plant-based elements: fruits, leaves, roots, or bark.

At Amazonikaa, when I select jewelry made from these plant materials, I specifically favor this relationship with nature: either the material retains its natural color, or its color is crafted by hand using plant-based elements.

But before talking about coloring, one must look at what nature already offers us.

Seeds and pits: colors that already exist in nature

The natural palette of seeds and pits is much richer than one might imagine.

Some materials used in Brazilian craftsmanship simply do not need to be dyed.

The saboneteira (sapindus saponaria), for example, naturally possesses a dark shade.

The tento (adenanthera pavonina) stands out for its intense red, while the tento olho-de-cabra (ormosia arborea) naturally presents this characteristic combination of red and black.

The pit of the inajá (attalea maripa), fruit of an Amazonian palm tree, takes us toward a completely different palette, with softer tones that lean toward brown and caramel.

Intense red, red and black, brown, caramel… these colors already belong to the material.

For someone discovering these seeds and pits in Europe, this can be surprising. Some shades are so deep or vibrant that one could easily imagine that coloring was necessary.

Yet, here, the color was not added: it was already there.

This is one of the things I love to help people discover through Amazonikaa: before being the color of a piece of jewelry, it is sometimes simply the color that nature has given to a seed or a pit.

Discover the jewelry made from plant materials selected by Amazonikaa

When nature also allows for creating new colors

But all the colors observed on these pieces of jewelry are not necessarily those that the seed originally possessed.

There is another way to work with color: using plant elements to naturally modify the shade of the material.

This is a skill I find notably in the work of Dona Nice (photo above), an artisan from the Jamaraquá community in the Brazilian Amazon, with whom I work today.

Dona Nice is part of the Jamaraquá women's association, whose artisans create pieces from natural materials.

To work with certain colors, she uses the natural elements she knows. She gathers the materials she needs, sometimes directly from around her home, then uses them to prepare the seeds.

Fruits, leaves, roots, or bark can thus play a role in the coloring process.

Lemon, indigo, or even saffron are a few examples.

We then discover something quite fascinating: one plant material can transform another.

The morototo and the lemon: when a seed changes color

Let’s take a concrete example with the morototo (didymopanax morototoni), a seed that Dona Nice works with, notably to obtain different shades.

Dona Nice has lemon trees at her home. When she has plenty of lemons, she can use them to work on the color of the morototo.

To obtain a shade close to khaki green, the seeds are immersed in a lemon-based preparation.

She uses the juice, but also the lemon peels, then leaves the seeds in contact with this preparation for a certain amount of time.

Gradually, their color transforms.

And the resulting shade is not necessarily always exactly the same.

The quantity of lemons, the quantity of seeds, and the time spent in the preparation can influence the intensity of the color.

This is where the artisan’s skill takes on its full meaning.

It is not just about applying a predefined color to a material. You have to know what you are using, know how the materials react with one another, observe the transformation, and work with the natural variations.

Lemon, indigo, saffron… a plant-based palette

Lemon is only one example.

Other plant elements can be used to work with other tones.

Indigo is used in certain preparations, while saffron notably allows for moving toward warmer, ochre tones.

Certain barks can also be used to obtain darker shades.

Thus, a material that already possesses its own natural color can reveal new nuances thanks to the artisan's work.

And this is probably one of the aspects I find most fascinating about this skill: the color does not come to mask nature. It itself comes from nature.

A seed can encounter a fruit, a leaf, a root, or a bark. Then come the knowledge, the experience, the time, and the gestures of the artisan.

Behind a color, there are the hands of an artisan

When I select these creations from Dona Nice for Amazonikaa, I therefore do not just see a necklace, a bracelet, or a pair of earrings with beautiful colors.

I also think about what happened before the jewelry reached us.

It was necessary to prepare the materials, search for the necessary plant elements, work on the coloring, observe its evolution, and then craft the jewelry by hand.

When we discover the finished creation, all these steps have become almost invisible. And yet, they are there.

They also explain why the shades may vary slightly from one creation to another.

A seed or a pit is a natural material. And when its color is worked using plant elements, the result does not seek the perfect uniformity of industrial production.

These variations are therefore not something to be erased.

They are part of the story of the material and the artisanal work.

Like any jewelry, a few gestures to preserve it

Jewelry made from seeds, pits, or other plant materials deserves to be worn and kept with care, just like any other jewelry.

It is notably better to avoid spraying perfume or cosmetic products directly onto the jewelry and to protect it from prolonged exposure to humidity.

A few simple gestures allow you to preserve its beauty and enjoy these artisanal creations for a long time.

Would you like to know how to maintain your jewelry and preserve it over time?

Discover my tips for maintaining and preserving your jewelry

Looking at the colors of jewelry differently

At Amazonikaa, I select and import jewelry made in Brazil by partner artisans.

Through these creations, I want to help people in Europe discover artisanal skills, materials, and stories that allow us to look at Brazil differently.

For jewelry made from seeds and pits, I prioritize, as much as possible, the natural color of the material or coloring obtained artisanally from plant elements.

So, the next time you look at the colors of a piece of jewelry made from seeds or pits, observe them a little closer.

This color that you perhaps thought was artificial… was perhaps already that of the material.

And if it was not, it may have begun its story in a fruit, a leaf, a root, or a bark, before passing through the hands of an artisan.