The end of February brought more than cold winds over from Europe, it also brought us the Aagaards. Anyone reading this Trollbeads blog is well aware, or should be, of the Trollbeads family from Denmark. The end of February was a turning point for Trollbeads in the United States because that is when the Aagaards took over the Trollbeads distributorship for the U.S. I have written about it in past blogs so if you need to catch up you can check back at the older articles. As predicted this change has been monumental for dealers and for collectors in the U.S. I think one of the biggest changes this has brought about so far, most obvious to the U.S. collectors is the loss of the TrollbeadsUS.Com website. Lund Trading, the former U.S. Trollbeads distributor, had a dynamic site for collectors and many enjoyed the use of the registry and of the bracelet builder. Unannounced, the site was taken down last week. That means anyone who still had their registries on the site, lost them. But worry not because the Aagaards have a terrific site for you to play at www.TrollbeadsUniverse.com.You can have a registry, find retailers, find events and read about the history of every Trollbead ever in production. The history of Trollbeads in Europe is long and so much can be seen through the museum they have featured on the site. It may take a while to adjust to the new playground but in time you’ll love it and feel right at home.
Here (no pun intended) is a friend you can see in Trollbeads museum on TrollbeadsUniverse.com. He is one of the 3 Monkeys individually created by Svend Nielsen in 2003 and it was also retired from the line in 2003. Apparently there was no monkey business in 2003. Whatever the reason for it's short life the 3 Monkeys are very rare. This week a very kind soul from Europe was willing to sell me her monkey, "Hear No Evil" and he arrived and stands proud amongst his fellow retirees at the U.S. Trollbeads Museum at Trollbeads Gallery. The museum grows daily!