Thinking of Holland...

This Spring the Netherlands offers again many events. Festivals, markets, parades, expositions and events are organised throughout the country in every season. But the largest national event is celebrated every year on 30 April: Queen's Day. It's a must to come and see Holland turn orange for this event! This year Queen's Day will be even more special when the new monarch’s investiture will occur on April 30, 2013.

Next to that after nearly 10 years of extensive renovation work, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has reopened its doors to the public on 13 April. The Rijksmuseum, is home to a magnificent collection of Dutch art and history. A few historical and cultural Dutch icons you must have seen:

• Rembrandt’s Night Watch (de Nachtwacht) is one of the most famous works by a Dutch master.
  
• Rijksmuseum has one of the finest collections with paintings by great masters of the 17th century, such as Frans Hals, Jan Steen, Vermeer and Rembrandt van Rijn.

With these happenings in mind we designed a collection that highlights The Netherlands in a bit different way than windmills, cheese and woodenshoes... and we didn't do a bead for the coronation either. From the Rijksmuseum we've selected famous masterpieces depicting favorite customs and/or their attributions and translated these into beads.

The Rijksmuseum's new site offers a fabulous feature to create your own studio of favorite works and objects from the museum. Our 'collection': https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/nl/mijn/verzamelingen/57707--faerybeads


Our 'Dutch Collection':

• 'Doorloper' skates inspired by paintings by Hendrick Avercamp (1585-1634) who painted the homely pleasures of winter. A bit ignoring its harshness back then without the comforts we have in our modern times. Skating is still a favorite custom in Winter at The Netherlands.
  
• Parrot tulip inspired by the tulips as painted by Jacob Marrel (1614–1681) After Rose, Tulip is currently one of the top 10 romantic flowers, representing perfect love.
  
• Trompe l'oeil a playful twist with the jug from 'The Milk Maid' by Johannes Vermeer (1632–1675) and the frame of the painting.
  
• Beret inspired by berets worn and painted by Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669) who is believed to have started a 'trend' amongst artists wearing a cap or rather a beret. The beret is part of the long-standing stereotype of the intellectual, film director, artist, "hipsters", poet, bohemians and beatniks.

All beads are argentium silver but for the 'trompe l'oeil' bead which is (in this picture) 18k red gold.
Beads are available from May 3rd.

Glass beads from Christa/Luccicare.

Collection overview:





'Doorloper' skates

'Doorloper' skates

Parrot tulip

Parrot tulip

Trompe l'oeil

Trompe l'oeil

Beret

Beret

Beret

You did a great job with these beads, it's really something else than the alltime tulips, cloggs and mills. I love the bead made after 'het melkmeisje'(I like Dutch names in this case more than French) and the baret. I would love to see the doorloper apart, can't see it properly on this chain.

And the tulip is gorgeous, although I hate tulips myself. But I know a lot of people love tulips. For every taste is a bead

I like the Tulip, and the Beret

These are really interesting designs. Look forward to seeing more of these new beads

lovely

Lovely elegant tulip.

The tulip looks amazing. Love it!

The tulip is beautiful - very appealing to me.

Beautifully detailed parrot tulip

Beautiful collection!! Well done. My favorite is the Tulip, but they are all very original and gorgeous.

Unusual and most beautiful, at first sight I am falling for Tulip and Beret, but looking at the picture several times, it would be soooo nice to have the whole collection, the framed jug-bead in rose-gold really is special and might grow on me!

My favourite is the tulip as well, it's so much more interesting than the Tb tulip (and I really liked that one too).

Absolutely love the Trompe l'oeil bead, it is brilliant. But they are all lovely, very unique and exquisitely detailed, as always

Yes, exquisite beads and a wonderful tribute to the Dutch masters!! Bravo Sita, I love them all!

Congratulations to this beautiful designs!! I like them all

My favourite is definitely trompe-l'oeil, wow! The tulip is fantastic too! Like Tinka I would like to see the skates separately because I find them hard to make out in this picture. Congratulations on another wonderful 'line' of beads Faerybeads.

Congratulions with these truly new beads, really new designs. How does it work with the cup and frame? Does it flip over or does it stay in the way the picture shows?

I'll be taking pictures tomorrow of the individual beads.
The trompe l'oeil bead's jug and frame are fixed. My original design was made of a separate jug and frame but it didn't look as intended on a chain.

BRAVO WELL DONE

Love the tulip

I love the Tulip! Stunning!

Really interesting collection - I like the parrot tulip as well, one of my favourite flowers.

These are wonderful - very innovative designs. Love the tulip and the trompe l'oeil

We've added pictures of the individual beads:
http://www.beadthrilled.com/t13621-thinking-of-holland#246475

We're experiencing some delay in producing and finishing beads and jewelry due to illness of our main goldsmith therefor the new collection will be available for shipping by May 3rd.