Joke van Biesen creates art from beads, meticulously and patiently, often following her own designs. The Dutch word is ‘sieraden’, which translates into jewelry with a high-end connotation of valuable metals and crystals, or adornments with a low-end connotation of decorations. Art, let’s keep it at that.

Beadwork it’s called. I had never heard of beadwork but found out that there is a worldwide community, with art fairs that attracts visitors from many different countries. My first thought was that I would never have the patience to sit day by day stringing all these tiny beads on thin threads. And then I thought: actually there isn’t much difference with what I do: imagining an idea, focusing while working and most of all sitting many hours behind a computer screen for post-processing.

I like taking pictures of her art, this time with daughter Nora modelling (who also posed at Het meisje met het sieraad). And I’m really happy when I see the results, and how the pictures are used to share her work with that worldwide audience.