I love my Florida upbringing. It is part of who I am.
I am The Tappingflamingo
and...
I am also The Bohemian Hippie.
why am I Tappingflamingo?
well, Florida has a lot to do with it. The sandy beaches; the warm, tropical breezes; the sunshine; the palm trees; and even the beautiful colors of yellows, blues, browns, greens, purples, oranges, pinks. I love colorful things.
Tappingflamingo also because of my dance background. I love dancing, and yoga...
Why The Bohemian Hippie?
I play the mountain dulcimer.
I love to dress comfortably. Dresses that flow, layers, lace, Birkenstocks, denim, beach wear, long/easy going hair, etc...
oh, and of course...jewelry
I love jewelry. I love to wear it and make it.
Crystals, feathers, sea shells, hemp, wood, recycled guitar strings, paper, sari ribbon
Oversized earrings, layers of necklaces, bracelets that stack up and down the arm, and anklets
A lot of my friends tease me about being such a hippie. I don't mind, because I know I am. After all, as soon as I graduated from high school, our family drove all over the country for six weeks pulling a pop up camper with our red VW Van. Can't get more hippier than that, lol...
anyway.....I've made nature inspired jewelry for quite some time. In my research of the style I make, I have learned the style is bohemian hippie. I love the bohemian style, and as I have researched what that is, I have learned that I am A Bohemian Hippie...tropical style, of course...
This past week, I was fortunately enough to get in on a good bead sale. That was great for me, since I'm getting ready to have a few jewelry open houses for the holidays. The above necklace is made of turquoise and white freshwater pearls.
This next one is made of lavender freshwater pearls and hematite beads. I love the black and lavender combination.
This last one is made of pink coral.
This necklace I made for one of my daughters roommates. She was telling me that Christmas this year would be easy since they all like jewelry. I asked her what they liked. She mentioned that one of them likes summery sparkly things. I had these glass crystal beads on hand, and so whipped it up real quick. I think she'll like it.
A friend told me about a local business that is closing up shop and selling all their displays. They had several of these necklace forms, and a really nice earring display that they aren't ready to give up yet. Their last day is Friday and they told me to come in next Thursday. I think I may check with them before. It's really pretty cool, in fact I think I would like to have it to put my personal earrings on. It's really European looking and would go in my bedroom nicely.
This necklace I made several years ago. I knotted it. Boy, was that a lot of work, but I really like the way it turned out. It is made of black onyx beads, hematite hearts and crystal beads. The necklace is a little longer than I usually wear, but it goes nicely with some of those winter turtle neck type tops and dresses.
