Founded in 1976 by Danish designer, Lise Aagaard, in Copenhagen,Trollbeads collectable bead jewellery has won international artistic recognition and established a global following. With its extensive and dynamic range of highly individual quality beads, featuring over 400 intricate designs, Danish Trollbeads simply stands apart from the rest.
Each piece is individually hall marked and hand made using quality raw materials including sterling silver, 18 carat gold, Italian coloured glass, natural pearls and precious stones. The jewellery is unusual in that every bead has its own symbolism and meaning which can be interpreted by the individual to mark an experience or event. The many different symbols, flowers, animals, colours and materials featured in the beads offer endless variations and combinations which make the jewellery both distinctive and personal.
A collection of individually selected beads can be attractively displayed on Trollbeads foxtail bracelets and chains, creating an exclusive and distinctive lifestory bracelet or necklace which is entirely unique to the wearer.
The history and originality ofTrollbeads is very much a part of the jewellery's unique appeal, people are attracted to the individuality and fascinated by the skill and technique involved in crafting these stunning beads.
This unusual jewellery is very much a family business, managed by its entrepreneurial founder Lise Aagaard who grew up in a family where her father and two brothers were silver and goldsmiths. She began her career as a textile designer before becoming accepted as her father's apprentice and eventually developing the trollbeads collection. The very first Trollbead, a silver bead with six different troll faces all the way around it, was created by Lise's brother, silversmith, Soren Solvsmed, in 1976, giving birth to the original concept of collectable bead jewellery.
But it was Lise who really brought Trollbeads to life, displaying the silver beads in her own jewellery store in Copenhagen. Inspired by the enthusiasm of her customers, she introduced names and stories for each bead and created new designs.
Great skill and technique is involved in the creation of each individually, hand crafted quality piece in the Trollbeads collection. The vast majority of the original fairytale and Norse Trollbeads were made in silver as the historically the Vikings created a lot of silver jewellery, including necklaces and arm rings. In order to create contrasting effects in Trollbeads and to give them character, many of the silver beads are oxidised and then polished, leaving the surface of the bead shiny with dark corners. Intricate silver figures and shapes are individually hand made by pouring molten silver into a plaster cast which rotates in a centrifuge. The beads are then dipped in an acid bath before being polished, rinsed and finally dried in sawdust before completion.
Silver also plays a vital role in the colourful glass Trollbeads. As glass is a very hard material it would in time erode a silver bracelet made of entwined silver threads. The hole in the glass bead therefore has to be lined and silver provides the solution. In 1999, with her brother, engineer, Per Nielsen, Use developed a silver lining for the hole through the glass beads, enabling customers to add a whole spectrum ofcolourto their bracelets and necklaces.
Only Italian coloured glass, recognised for its excellence throughout the world, is used. Intricate lamp-working skills and techniques are involved in crafting the individual beads by heating a combination of quality Italian coloured glass rods in an intense heat of between 600 and 800 degrees Celsius.
Layers of coloured glass are then melted one over the other, spinning in the intense flame, to create the intricate patterns and designs for which Trollbeads are so renowned. The completed Trollbead is left with a very strong surface tension and lined with a robustand narrowsolid sterling silver core which maximises the width of the glass to make the bead extremely durable. "When I choose to create Trollbeads it is because they can be combined in an infinite number of ways", Lise says."It is a very vibrant piece ofjewellery and it is quite a privilege to be able to be a part of its creation."
There's a choice of four elegant earring hooks with twenty beautiful accessories, inspired by eight different Danish designers. Individually hand crafted in silver and gold plated silver are fifteen different images from a stunning Sun Circle to a delicate Morning Dew and Modern Triangle. The range is completed with five attractive precious stone accessories in Amethyst, Rose Quartz, Black Onyx, Chalcedony and Green Prehnite.
This is a really different collection from Trollbeads, opening up a whole new world of collecting and combining possibilities for earrings, It's different and it's ingenious.
Ingenuity is certainly true of all Trolibeads creations. The passion and inventiveness behind the brand keeps it alive and thriving, with people waiting expectantly for the very latest beads and designs.
Beautiful,chic and completely unique,Trollbeads are intricate little works of art, each individually hand crafted to create a truly distinctive style.
Anything less than an Original simply won't do for aficionados ofTrollbeads collectable bead jewellery.
