When Julia Pappas created PORTOMEA (pronounced “por-to-ME’-a” – the E as in Echo) she was inspired by the Latin phrase “Omnia mecum porto mea” which means “All of mine I carry with me” and is interpreted as “everything you need is in you.” Every piece of jewelry reflects her fascination with creativity and human potential – our ability to be self-aware, to grow as individuals, to nurture ourselves and others, to live a fulfilled life. She believes that deep inside each person is a tremendous potential to become their best selves, and that everything they need in order to become that — is already within them. By offering the fruits of her own contemplative practice of creation, Julia hopes to connect her customers to their own inner world of possibilities.

Through beadwork and the deliberate creation of each piece, PORTOMEA intends to stretch our imagination, to evoke the sense of exploration of an inner journey into the outer world. As something created with deep commitment, PORTOMEA collections urge us to consider who and what we commit ourselves to and whether it is in alignment with our values. Just like each bead — while only a tiny element of the final beaded piece — is, nonetheless, a critical element without which the construction would not be complete, so is everyone of us, an important mark in the fabric of the cosmos.

As the years of technological progress speed up and new discoveries come about faster and faster, it feels ever more important to ask questions about our inner life and how it is keeping up with the new conditions of the world. When we live in a fascinating time such as this and are given so many tools and permissions, what is it that we still need to understand in order to stay true to our inner vision? Perhaps if we give ourselves time to ponder over how we want to live this one life and what it means to be human, we would learn to integrate all the pieces of ourselves in order to access our potential while, at the same time, manage to participate in the larger aspirations we hold as a global community.