the PRAYING MANTIS! detailed carving in natural tagua nut vegetable ivory!

Description

the
PRAYING MANTIS!!!!
A detailed carving in tagua nut natural vegetable ivory, it has great natural color.
Mantises were considered to have supernatural powers
by early civilizations, including Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt, and Assyria.
A cultural trope
popular in cartoons
imagines the female mantis as a femme fatale
. Mantises are among the insects most commonly kept as pets.
Vegetable ivory
or
tagua nut
is a product made from the very hard white
endosperm
of the seeds of certain
palm trees
. Vegetable ivory is named for its resemblance to
animal ivory
. Species in the genus
Phytelephas
(literally "elephant plant"), native to
South America
, are the most important sources of vegetable ivory. The seeds of the
Caroline ivory-nut palm
from the
Caroline Islands
,
natangura palm
from
Solomon Islands
and
Vanuatu
,
and the
real fan palm
, from
Sub-Saharan Africa
, are also used to produce vegetable ivory.
This piece was entirely hand carved using high quality rotary Fordem tools and carbon dental burrs .
Dimensions of this really nice carving: 2 1/8 inches LONG by 3/4 inch WIDE by 1 1/8 inches TALL.
You will love this
PRAYING MANTIS
. Guaranteed!