When living in Mauritius, I had the opportunity to roam the land where Tombalacoque trees were.
Mauritius is the land of the long lost dodo which had a crusher of a beak. This means that it was one of the very living creatures able to feed on the massive fruits and therefore seeds produced by Sideroxylon grandiflorum aka the Tombalacoque tree. Passing through the digestive system of this plumply bird, the germination of these seeds was triggered. However, with the extinction of dodos, it was thought that the tree species would also disappear. Luckily, and even though the species is far from being safe, some of the seeds can still germinate and the trees grow.
As I was often in the forest, I collected one day 3 rotten seeds to turn into the necklace that is on the picture below. I polished them and drilled a hole in each one of them. I actually broke 2 drills on one seed, just to illustrate why the dodo with its massive beak was the only one able to crush those seeds. I also made the FIMO pearls and then it was ready to get assembled.
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| Tombalacoque ornamented necklace (2009) |
However, the Tombalacoque is a protected species and I couldn't take the necklace away for Mauritius. It eventually got dismantled. As the seeds weren't vernished (even if they look really shiny on the picture!), I dropped them back in the forest.
