Mama Tako Octopus Necklace With Ball
$175.00 – $255.00
A mama tako to protect you always. Optional balls in Birch, Lava, or hand-felted wool ball represent sustainable, earthly treasures. And now also in morganite. (We hope to add sustainable Hawaiian Koa soon – reclaimed from fallen and sustainably raised trees.)
After laying and securing her clutch of eggs, female octopuses sit with them, passing water over eggs until the babies emerge between 2-10 months later. They don’t eat, or hunt during this time, their sole activity is protecting their young. Once hatched, the mother dies, and the cycle begins anew. (For more, here’s an extraordinary story of a deep ocean mama that sat with her eggs for 53 months!)
He’e (octopus, tako)
Ola has many meanings in Hawaiian, among them are life, health, well-being; alive, living; heal, survive, thrive. Each design in the Ola Collection is inspired by something that sustained and helped the ancient Hawaiians thrive.
In Hawaii, octopuses are called he’e (in Hawaiian, with a glottal stop between the two e’s) and tako (the Japanese word for it) and if we are lucky, we see them when diving. Deeply intelligent, they have multiple ways to defend themselves – black ink, camouflage, even squirting water. (There’s more about them in our blog) We enjoy their company on dives for both playfulness and inventiveness – even when very small these wonderful creatures will pull themselves up to size to intimidate a photographer!
