Corinna Bechko Jewelry...and Capybaras

Capybara Aluminum Jewelry by Corinna Bechko

at Tapir and Friends Animal Store

We consider ourselves very fortunate to be able to feature the work of several talented artists on our website. Corinna Bechko is not just a wonderful artist, she's also a pretty fantastic human being. She donates 20% of the proceeds from the sales in her Etsy store to TPF. 

Speaking of capybaras, we're about to make your day. Go here and prepare to be delighted! You're welcome. 

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Warthog Jewelry

Whatever your personal totem, we have the bling for you!

Our Aluminum Warthog Jewelry

Any item can be ordered in a variety of colors. These delightful warthogs are made by Corinna Bechko, who is not only an artist, but has worked at the Los Angeles Zoo in the research division. She attended the Jewelry Arts Academy in Manhattan. What a lucky day it was for us when she discovered our web site and suggested we might want to see the jewelry she makes!

Customers have a wide variety of choices. Pendants and earrings come with a bead. Corinna will try to find any color you want, so bead choices are almost endless. The warthog itself comes in a variety of colors as listed in the drop-down menu above. The shiny eye is the core color of the aluminum Corinna uses. You will find examples of the earrings, pins and pendants and some color combinations, as well as the other animal types we sell, on our page of Aluminum Jewelry.

This jewelry is sturdy and light weight, and measure over 1.25 inches from nose to tail. The pendants hang on a 17-inch black silk cord (included). You color choice can be made up quickly - probably in only a few days.

About Warthogs

Famous for the large warts on their face (very prominent on males), the warthog is one of the smallest species of pig, length--3 to 4.9 feet, height--30 inches at the shoulder, weight--110 to 330 pounds. Their heads, however, are proportionately much larger than other pigs, 1/6 of the length of their body. Warthogs are gray to brown in color with stiff bristles sparsely scattered over their bodies. Down the center of their back is a long mane of hair. They have a tuft of bristles on the end of their long tail that is ideal for flicking away flies, but can be held straight up when alarmed. Their legs are longer than most pigs enabling them to run up to 30 miles per hour, yet they have to kneel to graze. Warthogs have 2 sets of tusks. A long, curved set grows from their upper jaw and a small razor-sharp set grows from their lower jaw. Acute hearing and a good sense of smell help to offset the warthog's poor eyesite. There are actually two species of warthog, the common warthog and the desert warthog. Like camels and desert gazelles, they can live in areas without water for several months, the only pigs able to do so. Be sure to look over our other pig family toys and gifts.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Halloween Party Favors, Decorations, Gifts and Prizes

Trick Or Treat!!!

Our New Halloween/Samhain Page!

The first of many holiday pages to come, TPF presents all the creepy, crawly, sneaky, and scary animal toys and jewelry we offer in one place, just in time for your Halloween bash! Come vist and enjoy the festivities of the harvest season.

About Halloween

Halloween is a holiday celebrated around the world annually on October 31. Celebrations vary based on geography, culture, religon, and individual preference, but most feature a theme regarding the honoring of ancestors and recognizing the change in seasons from a time of abundance and fertility (Summer) to a time of cold and darkness (Winter). This holiday goes by the name Hallowe'en, All Hallows' Evening/Eve, Samhain, Samuin, and Parentalia.

In neopagan and pre-christian faiths, the holiday of Samhain (pronounced SOW-win) represents the last of three harvest festivals, signifying the end of Summer and the coming of Winter. In a practical sense, the holiday celebrates the end of agricultural work (the harvests are in, work's done, HOORAY!), but has a dark connotation that "what you have is all you have"...what you've harvested had to last until the next growing season. In a religious sense, Samhain is one of two holidays (the other is Beltaine, held May 1) that represent a short time of transition, where the boundries between our plane of existence and that of the Summerland (where the spirits of the dead reside) become thin and porous. Spirits of fallen friends and family can come calling, or may even be invited to attend meals in their honor (called Dumb Suppers). Mischevious spirits can wreak havok on the living on this night, and many people decorate themselves and their homes with wards against these poltergeists in the form of Jack-O-Lanterns and elaborate costumes.

The Christian holiday of All Hallows' Day or All Saints Day occurs on November 1, and so October 31 is "All Hallow's Eve". Both All Hallows' Day and All Souls Day (held on November 2) involve honoring those individuals who have passed away and praying for the recently dead to ensure their souls safely reach Heaven, and are therefore very similar to the older cultural beliefs of this time of year. Attitudes amongst modern Christians regarding Halloween vary widely, from cheerful acceptance of what they see as a childrens' night of fun to a horrible holiday of demon worship and blasphemy. I recently saw a Christian Halloween dance being advertised as "reclaiming what Satan has stolen". Many American public schools no longer offer Halloween celebrations because of potential conflicts within their communities regarding the holiday.

The holiday of Halloween involves many unique images and traditions. The Jack-O-Lantern, carved out of gourds and root vegetables, is a common sight throughout October. Goblins, vampires, werewolves, and other denizens of popular horror fiction decorate homes and workplaces. Games like bobbing for apples and corn mazes become popular. Trick-or-treating is a common tradition on this night. Orange and black dominate clothes, homes, and stores. Above all, any nocturnal, creepy, or ferocious animal features prominently in Halloween decor, costume, and gift-giving. Scorpions, spiders, and insects abound...the raven and the owl watch over trick-or-treaters and are harbingers of news...and of course, the black cat slinks through the shadows, watching to cross the unwary's path.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Custom-Made Mountain Tapir Aluminum Earrings, Pins, and Pendants

Come check out our line of customizable animal jewelry!

Our Custom Aluminum Jewelry

This animal jewelry is unique! Any item can be ordered in a variety of colors. This sturdy, light-weight mountain tapir aluminum jewelry is made by Corinna Bechko, who is not only an artist, but has worked at the Los Angeles Zoo in the research division. She attended the Jewelry Arts Academy in Manhattan. What a lucky day it was for us when she discovered our web site and suggested we might want to see the jewelry she makes!

Customers have a wide variety of choices. Pendants and earrings come with a bead. Corinna will try to find any color you want, so bead choices are almost endless. The tapir itself comes in a variety of colors as listed in the drop-down menu above. Each mountain tapir measures about 1 1/4 inches from nose to tail. The pendants hang on a 17-inch black silk cord (included). Your color choice can be made up quickly - probably in only a few days. You will find examples of the earrings, pins and pendants and some color combinations, as well as the other animal types we sell, on our page of Aluminum Jewelry. Make sure to come look through our entire collection of tapir jewelry.

About Mountain Tapirs

The mountain tapir (Tapirus pinchaque) is the rarest of all the tapir species. It is also the smallest in size and the only one that lives outside of tropical rainforests. It ranges high in the Andes of South America, exclusively in Colombia, Ecaudor and Northern Peru, where it spends long solitary hours, sleeping or nibbling fruits and leaves. The adult mountain tapir, called "danta" in Colombia, weighs about 300-500 pounds, has a woolly coat and white along its ear tips and around its mouth. Like other tapirs, it has a flexible nose or proboscis. It has four toes on the front feet and three toes on the back feet. The mountain tapir has been driven nearly into extinction by habitat loss and wanton hunting. Successful breeding programs exist at the Los Angeles Zoo and Colorado Springs' Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Custom-Made Mountain Tapir Aluminum Earrings, Pins, and Pendants

Make a fashion statement while you make a stand for tapir conservation!

Our Custom Aluminum Earrings, Pins, and Pendants

This animal jewelry is unique! Any item can be ordered in a variety of colors. This sturdy, light-weight mountain tapir aluminum jewelry is made by Corinna Bechko, who is not only an artist, but has worked at the Los Angeles Zoo in the research division. She attended the Jewelry Arts Academy in Manhattan. What a lucky day it was for us when she discovered our web site and suggested we might want to see the jewelry she makes!

Customers have a wide variety of choices. Pendants and earrings come with a bead. Corinna will try to find any color you want, so bead choices are almost endless. The tapir itself comes in a variety of colors as listed in the drop-down menu above. Each mountain tapir measures about 1 1/4 inches from nose to tail. The pendants hang on a 17-inch black silk cord (included). Your color choice can be made up quickly - probably in only a few days. You will find examples of the earrings, pins and pendants and some color combinations, as well as the other animal types we sell, on our page of Aluminum Jewelry. Make sure to come look through our entire collection of tapir jewelry.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Custom-made Baby Tapir Earrings

It's fashionable to be charitable!

Our Custom Animal Jewelry

This animal jewelry is unique! Any item can be ordered in a variety of colors. This sturdy, light-weight tapir aluminum jewelry is made by Corinna Bechko, who is not only an artist, but has worked at the Los Angeles Zoo in the research division. She attended the Jewelry Arts Academy in Manhattan. What a lucky day it was for us when she discovered our web site and suggested we might want to see the jewelry she makes!

Customers have a wide variety of choices. Pendants and earrings come with a bead. Corinna will try to find any color you want, so bead choices are almost endless. The tapir itself comes in a variety of colors as listed in the drop-down menu above. Each baby tapir measures about 1 inch long. The pendants hang on a 17-inch black silk cord (included). Your color choice can be made up quickly - probably in only a few days. You will find examples of the earrings, pins and pendants and some color combinations, as well as the other animal types we sell, on our page of Aluminum Jewelry. Also check out our terrific selection of tapir jewelry.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Bat Earrings, Pins and Pendants

Just the thing to complete your All-Hallows' outfit!

Our Bat Jewelry

Note: This bat is a large design (3 inches wide), and the metal wingtips are pointed. They are not extremely sharp, but at that size they could poke. The artist has suggested that this design might be best used for pins and pendants, but the choice is up to you.

Any item can be ordered in a variety of colors. These sturdy bats are made by Corinna Bechko, who is not only an artist, but has worked at the Los Angeles Zoo in the research division. She attended the Jewelry Arts Academy in Manhattan. What a lucky day it was for us when she discovered our web site and suggested we might want to see the jewelry she makes!

Customers have a wide variety of choices. Pendants and earrings come with a bead. Corinna will try to find any color you want, so bead choices are almost endless. The bat itself comes in a variety of colors as listed in the drop-down menu above. You can see examples of the earrings, pins and pendants and some of the color combinations, as well as the other animal types we sell, on our page of Aluminum Jewelry.

This jewelry is sturdy and light weight, and each bat measures 3 inches from wingtip to wingtip. The pendants hang on a 17-inch black silk cord (included). Your color choice can be made up quickly - probably in only a few days. Come see our other bat gifts.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Custom-Made Tapir Jewelry

Never has conservation looked so stylish!

Our Custom-Made Tapir Jewelry

This animal jewelry is unique! Any item can be ordered in a variety of colors. This sturdy, light-weight asian tapir aluminum jewelry is made by Corinna Bechko, who is not only an artist, but has worked at the Los Angeles Zoo in the research division. She attended the Jewelry Arts Academy in Manhattan. What a lucky day it was for us when she discovered our web site and suggested we might want to see the jewelry she makes!

Corinna designed these inspired earrings especially for the Tapir Gallery Gift Shop. They are made of lightweight, durable aluminum in two colors. Our standard tapir design is about an inch long and is made with black and silver-gray metal, but you can choose from a number of other colors as listed in the drop-down menus above. Pendants and earrings come with a bead. Corinna will try to find any color you want, so bead choices are almost endless. The pendants hang on a 17-inch black silk cord (included). Your color choice can be made up quickly - probably in only a few days. You will find examples of the earrings, pins and pendants and some color combinations, as well as the other animal types we sell, on our page of Aluminum Jewelry. Come see our wonderful assortment of tapir jewelry.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Check Out Our eBay Auctions!

Although some of our items are not directly animal-themed, such as the tagua nut (vegetable ivory) jewelry above, they are all here for the same reason: the proceeds help us help the tapirs and their habitat in the wild.

You can check out all of our current auctions here. They change rapidly, so by the time you read this post, these items may be gone and others may be in their places.

The dolphin comes without the specs, by the way. You will need to supply your own! He isn't picky. You can give him just about any kind of gasses to hold on his nose. This dolphin may be the last of its type we're ever going to see. This is a discontinued item, and when we took the dolphin out of our online store, we didn't realize we still had one left!

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Animal jewelry made of colorful, durable, light-weight aluminum

This blue siamang is only one of a page-full of colorful, unique animal jewelry made for Tapir and Friends Animal Store by artist and exquisite colorist Corinna Bechko. She is also a zookeeper; she cares for them, studies them, and contributes to their conservation. What could be better? You get a unique holiday gift to give to a loved one, and the animals benefit, too.

These animals come in a wide range of colors. Add an artistic bead to the earrings and pendants, and you come up with a combination all your own. Corinna's bead collection seems almost endless! Just name a color and let her make the perfect match for your jewelry!

We have primates, tapirs, a wolf, a toucan, a warthog, and many more. Come take a look!

Capybara jewelry

Did you know that you can get capybara earrings, pins, and pendants in NINE different colors? And that's only the color of the capy's body. The bead color can be mixed or matched to an almost unlimited degree. Artist and animal-lover Corinna Bechko makes this capybara and a distinctly unique array of other animals out of light-weight aluminum, and she has a bead collection you won't believe. Just choose the colors and the result will be a stunning piece of original art you will not find anywhere else.

Even though our aluminum jewelry is quite affordable, jewelry prices can drive up the shipping cost if you buy in small "herds." Value-based shipping works great for most things, but in order to accommodate the light weight of jewelry and to make it easier on your pocketbook, you'll find a new option in our secure shopping cart: if your order contains only jewelry, click on the "Jewelry Only" shipping rate, and we'll ship as many pieces as you want anywhere in the world for $5.00 per address. Is that a deal?

Come check out our delightful aluminum animal jewelry art by Corinna!

Animal jewelry from Corinna

Animal jewelry . . . what a nice gift these pieces make! How about a nifty tricolor toucan pin, pendant, or pair of earrings? Or a swinging siamang? Choose your colors, and this custom-made aluminum jewelry (lightweight, shiny, and durable) is yours for a very affordable price. Check out Corinna's other designs in our online gift shop! You can also call us toll free at (888) 325-3179. Talk to you soon!

Cute baby tapir animal jewelry

One of our most popular pieces of animal jewelry over the past eight or nine years has been this frolicking aluminum baby tapir, hand made by California artist Corinna Bechko. It comes in a selection of colors and can be ordered as a pin, pendant, or earrings. With the pendant and earrings you have a choice of any color bead you like. Corinna has an unusual collection of artistic beads. You choose the color and she'll find a style that looks perfect with the tapir jewelry. Aluminum is light weight and durable, and your creation will be a rare one-of-a-kind keepsake.

Unusual hand-made animal jewelry

This unique hyena jewelry by Corinna Bechko

comes in earrings, pin, or pendant.

If you like unusual animal jewelry, don't miss these original-design hand-made lightweight aluminum pieces by Corinna Bechko. At Tapir and Friends Wildlife World Online Gift Shop, we've been working with Corinna for almost a dozen years. Order online from us, and within a few days she completes your jewelry in her studio in California and ships directly to you wherever you live. Currently she makes fourteen different animals. Any one of them can be ordered as a pin, pendant, or earring set. We offer a number of truly interesting colors for the body of the animal; after that, your animal jewelry becomes truly customized when you select a bead color to go with the earrings or pendant. Corinna has a terrific selection of artistically-designed beads to go with any of the aluminum animals. We've seen some combinations that are analogous and subtle, and others that are amazingly exotic, such as purple with yellow bead, or red with . . . well, sometimes our customers just say, "Choose whatever bead you think looks good." We've never been disappointed, and our customers love her work.

Corinna Bechko is not only an artist, but she also has a degree in zoology. She worked at the Los Angeles Zoo in the research division and has volunteered at a wild animal rehab center in Southern California. Her favorite animals there were the opossums - she actually took a class in how to handle and rehabilitate opossums. She continues to work with wild animals. Corinna attended the Jewelry Arts Academy in Manhattan. The Los Angeles resident is also an author and filmmaker. What a lucky day it was for us in the mid-1990s when she discovered our web site and suggested we might want to see the jewelry she makes! At the time we were located in the tiny town of Palisade, Colorado. We later moved to Astoria, Oregon, where our association with Corinna continues. Working together over the years, we've made a lot of people happy, which makes all of us happy, too. Corinna's work is classy, and the prices are affordable. Making these beautiful pieces of animal jewelry is a labor of love for Corinna. She donates the cost of postage so we can put that much more toward the conservation of wild habitats. Please check out our page of Corinna's special animal jewelry. Here you can see all of the animal designs and a few of the delightful color combinations we've had in the shop as samples. Tame or wild, you decide!