Free Stuff Makes Things Better

Day 3:
Today I saw more jewellery than you can poke a stick at.
I feel as though my brain is so filled with jewellery that it is coming out of my eyeballs.
But in a really good way.

Galerie Marzee was today's highlight. Filled with literally hundreds of beautiful, ugly, weird, thought provoking (and some thoughtless...) pieces you really couldn't get any better - Gijs Bakker's laminated orchid comb, Karl Fritsch rings (and a photo of Karl himself, as in the human being, not the 'Karl' hiding in my hand luggage), Stephanie Fleck's googly eyed neck piece 'Halssieraad' and a myriad of other inspirational objects.

You couldn't get any better that is - until you get something for free...

A free Galerie Marzee catalogue from Marie-Jose van den Hout herself, plus four free postcards, cups of tea and some truly incredible biscuits (there was perhaps a fine line here between biscuits being offered and biscuits being taken, but were nonetheless also free...and delicious) made the visit even more exciting.

So, a quick breakdown of some of the sweet free stuff we've received so far:
Atelier Ted Noten's studio: plastic red arrow pins + free mint tea and apple tart + dvd for the library
Galerie Rob Koudijs: magazines for the library
Galerie Louise Smit: A selection of catalogues and magazines for the library.

And now for my corny, not so materialistic moral of today's blog - the most exciting 'free stuff' we've received in our trip so far are opinions, ideas and advice from some extremely influential collectors, artists and gallery owners of the contemporary jewellery world.

And that is what makes this trip so special.

V.