Fabulous Fabergé Eggs

Easter marks the re-awakening of life and the fact that Spring is already in full swing after the long deathly months of winter. In its religious context this is reflected by the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead after his crucifixion.

At Easter time the egg has long been given as a gift, symbolizing rebirth and fertility. Often, this is in its simplest form as a savory food courtesy of the chicken. Its more popular counterpart is sweet and generally made out of chocolate. In most cases the egg is decorated, painted or wrapped in brightly coloured foils. Hidden on the eve of Easter by the elusive Easter Bunny, and hunted for by excited children the next day in Easter egg hunts. This festival is one of the more delightful ones in the calendar year.

Historically there has been another genre of egg that was given at Easter, which although quite inedible was at the same time quite fabulous in its design and execution. These eggs were the Fabergé eggs, brainchild of Peter Carl Fabergé and his brother, Agathon.

This series of eggs were crafted in the workshops of the House of Fabergé between 1885 and 1917, having been commissioned by the Russian tsars, Alexander III and Nicholas II for their wives as annual Easter gifts.

Peter Carl Fabergé was trained as a jeweler and goldsmith and although his hand cannot actually be attributed to any of the Fabergé eggs, his membership of the merchant’s guild meant that he had access to the best designers and craftsmen around to execute his artistic vision. It was through this that he was able to build up the company founded by his father into one of international repute, creating artifacts influenced by ancient styles as well as the then more modern art nouveau. This put the house of Fabergé on a par with the American Tiffany & Co. The eggs were produced at the rate of one a year until 1917 when the October Revolution led to the demise of the imperial family, and Fabergé fled to Switzerland where he lived to the end of his life in 1920. It is said that the Bolsheviks gave Fabergé ten minutes to take his hat and leave.

The ingenuity and beauty of the eggs did not stop with the amazing enameling; precious jewels, metals and guilloche décor of its outside, but concealed an equally magnificent surprise inside. The first Fabergé egg, made to the delight of the Tsarina Maria Feodorovna’s (the whereabouts of which remains a mystery to this day) was a plain white egg with a simple gold band round the outside. The removable gold yolk within produced a multicolored hen with engraved feathers and rubies for eyes sitting on a nest. By pushing the beak upwards two more surprises were revealed; a tiny ruby egg-shaped pendant suspended inside a replica of a diamond set replica of the Imperial crown.

There are said to be a total of fifty Imperial Easter Eggs in the world, including the nine owned by the Russian energy tycoon Victor Vekselberg. He bought the eggs from the Forbes family collection auctioned at Sotheby’s; with a view to returning to Russia part of its cultural heritage. Ten can be found in the Moscow Kremlin Collection; five are at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, Virginia. Britain's Queen Elizabeth owns three. Others are in the United States, Switzerland and Monaco. The whereabouts of eight is still unknown.

Today descendants of the Fabergé brothers continue creating artifacts and reproductions to keep the Fabergé name alive.

© Alison Day

Alison Day Design

First published in the Connections magazine #11 Spring 2006 

Annejoke Luiting & Mango Murals

For as long as can be remembered ancient civilizations have painted murals as a records of their existence, or as an enhancement to their living space. Today the mural is still popular as an artistic decoration in our interiors, in urban spaces to revive the greyness of modern architecture, and also in the anti establishment decoration of graffiti art.

My visit this time took me to Beijum, Groningen to the house of Annejoke Luiting. With a little mobile help and a lot of cycling around I finally found her house. The reason being that the numbering of the houses seemed to bear a striking resemblance to a thought process conceived by Dali, aimed to confuse and infuriate.

Upon entering Annejoke’s house I came into a hall the floor of which was decorated with a swirling mural. A staircase led up to the living area where another mural could be seen just before we entered of a decidedly Art Nouveau influence. The background, a warm orangey colour could be found to repeat itself throughout the decor of the apartment. The area was filled with the scent of aromatic oil, and three cats strolling around or sleeping in specially prepared baskets. Central to view was a large painting of a rose in warm shades of yellow. We sat down to coffee accompanied by a rather heavenly chocolate and Annejoke began to tell me about herself.

As a child Annejoke’s interests were with fashion, which led at the age of twenty-five to fashion school in Amsterdam. Here although she enjoyed the study it became apparent that she was not commercial enough for the fashion world. Confirmation of this was to be seen when she produced a painting for her end examination! After this she changed artistic direction and there was no stopping her, she had found her passion. Painting backdrops for a musical, mural commissions via friends and acquaintances as well as painting for her own pleasure began the build up of her portfolio.

Working part time as a telephonist/receptionist at Eelde Airport, Groningen brought in her first major commercial mural sponsored by Dutch Bird. Her assignment was to jazz up the rather boring departures hall and at the same time make it child friendly. This she managed to do not only by her use of colour and subject matter but also by the interactive nature of the mural, complete with drawers that can be pulled out of the wall. Since then she has had a lot of private commissions.

Her colour palette consists of warm oranges, reds, pinks and yellows and a major influence is the decorative style of Art Nouveau and the artists from that period. In particular including Gustav Klimt, J W Waterhouse and Lawerence Alma Tadema. The classical and marble renditions in the work of the latter intrigued her so much so that she has tried to reproduce the technique in her murals. Her use of shape is generally curvaceous and flowing, and the overall effect is graphic but painterly.

When asked about her philosophy on life Annejoke believes that there is a central “rode draad’, (red line) that we all follow. We are confronted by hardships, illness and problems to make us look at what we are doing, to accept change and thereby learn from it. This is also true of her personal paintings; she believes she still has a lot to learn about expressing herself in her work in order to more than scratch the surface of who she is.

More information about Annejoke and her work can be found here. 

© Alison Day

Alison Day Design

First published in the Connections magazine #11 Spring 2006

Wagamama

Wagamama started out at Streatham Street, London, England in 1992, and has since then grown into a chain with shops the world over.

The interior of the Groningen branch, is sharp and clean as far as interior design and colour goes. The walls are neutral, the visible kitchen area (where one can watch the chefs hard at work) is silver and the back wall has a large red and yellow graphic mural design painted on it showing a figure eating hungrily from a bowl. We were greeted by friendly staff, dressed in red and black, with the Wagamama logo on a red T-shirt.

This is fast food with a twist. The philosophy behind the food is ‘positive eating and positive living’, where preparation times range from 5-10 minutes without detracting from the freshness, quality and taste of the food.

I tried Duck Gyoza, a side dish of fried dumplings filled with duck and leek with a Hoi Sin sauce and accompanied by a glass of wine. The simplicity of this delicious dish was pleasantly surprising, as was the presentation. The menu included a variety of dishes with noodles (their speciality) and some very healthy fresh juice combinations.

More about Wagamama can be found here

https://www.wagamama.com/

© Alison Day

Alison Day Design

First published in the Connections magazine #11 Spring 2006 

Say Alkmaar, Say ‘Cheese!’

Alkmaar is a Grand Dame of a city at 750 years old, with 100,000 inhabitants, and is known as the Netherlands Cheese City. It can be reached in just over half an hour from Amsterdam Central Station by intercity train.

The main attraction is the cheese market which starts at 10.00 am until 12.30 pm from the first Friday in April until the first Friday in September. During this time the market place is full of enormous cheeses being bought and sold, a yearly occurrence that has been going on for the last 600 years.

The cheeses are sold by a method called, ‘handjeklap’ (literally ‘hand clap’), a traditional selling method in the Netherlands amongst farmers where the seller and the buyer clap each other on the palm of the hand, whilst speaking a secret language. This means that they are in the middle of ‘doing business’. When the clapping stops it means that one has decided that the transaction is finished. The cheeses are then removed after weighing in the ‘Waag’ (the Weigh House), by ‘cheese porters’. Dressed in white uniforms and straw hats with coloured ribbons, these men are members of a 400 year old Cheese Carriers Guild. They use ‘berries’, a sort of sleigh contraption which helps to lift the heavy cheeses by the use of a strap system round the shoulders of the bearers. The cheese museum can be found in the Waaggebouw (Waag building) a 14th century building, which has all the information about dairy production.

From the historical point of view Alkmaar has about 400 monuments including the 16th century Town Hall and the Grote St. Laurenskerk.  The latter is built in the Brabant-Gothic style (like French Gothic, but with a more ornate exterior) and contains a world famous organ. There is also a Dutch Renaissance house, as well as numerous other churches, small estates and buildings with marvelous facades some being a couple of hundred years old and dating back to 1573, when Alkmaar became the first city in the Netherlands to beat the Spanish army.

Being the largest city in the region Alkmaar is popular as the social centre and offers a broad diversity of restaurants, cafés, theatres and museums. 

© Alison Day

Alison Day Design

First published in the Connections magazine #11 Spring 2006 

Connect Expo 2005

After the initial success of the Connecting International Women in Business Event, the second event, Connect Expo 2005, was held on Saturday 15 October at The Golden Tulip Hotel in Paterswolde to encourage and promote international women in business. The Expo utilized three of the hotel’s conference rooms in order to house the growing numbers of women participants and the variety of wares and services on offer at this event, as well as a stage for the fashion shows and demonstrations.


A concerted effort had been made before the day to distribute flyers and encourage presales of tickets before the event in order to attract as many visitors as possible from Groningen and the surrounding provinces. This effort was rewarded by double the amount of visitors in comparison to the last event. The very reasonably priced tickets also included participation in a prize draw after the event, with prizes donated by the stand holders. A portion of the proceeds was also donated to a charity, Stichting Giving Back. Two representatives of which, Diederik and Claudina, were on hand to give a presentation on the excellent work Giving Back does with underprivileged young people.

Set up time was bright and early with doors opening to the first visitors at 10.00 hrs. Throughout the day demonstrations of services and products of the stand holders could be seen, either on the stage or at the stands themselves. The fashion shows at 11.00 and 13.00 featured the expatriate women members, and a few of their willing teenage children as models. Outfits had been chosen from Kostuumverhuur Groningen, a costume hire shop located on Oosterstraat 25/A, Groningen, and each model sported three differently themed creations during the show: the first with international flavour, the second a funky outfit and the third an elegant evening gown. Later in the day, it was the kids turn. The Northern Angels Demo Team, a street dance troop choreographed and trained by Kim Darcey, gave a terrific demonstration of their dancing skills, sporting Connect baseball caps. Following the demo, kids clothing from Kiekeboe, a children’s boutique located at Oude Kijk in ‘t Jatstraat 63, Groningen, was expertly modeled also by the Demo Team.


As usual there was much talk and exchange of ideas, buying and selling and great interest by the public. Five o’clock saw the end of this particular event and after the bustle of the day the rooms were still again, filled only with tables sporting their blue covers.


For all those who volunteered or helped in any way, Thank You! For those of you who could not come, there is always the next one, so watch this space…

© Alison Day

Alison Day Design

First published in the Connections magazine #10 Winter 2006 

Bagels & Beans

New in the last few weeks to the centre of Groningen, is Bagels and Beans. This new eatery is part of a new franchise, with a total of twenty others so far throughout the Netherlands.

The interior is painted ochre yellow with images of bagel and beans. Seating is wooden chairs and tables, plus there is a large central table. There are magazines available in racks if you plan to kick back and relax.

On the tables you can find signs painted on oblong wooden bats with exclamations such as ‘Thirst’ on them which can be waived at the waiting staff, to attract attention and get service.

Drinks include all kinds of coffee such as mochachino, as well as all  kinds of fresh fruit juices, including an anti-stress one containing Royal Jelly.

Bagels come with a variety of fillings, including cream cheese, and the pastrami one (which my friend Kim had) came with cream cheese on the side in little dish.

They have a great selection of cakes, including fig cake and Brownies the size of a block of flats!

Bagels and Beans - Zwanestraat 30, 9712 CN Groningen

© Alison Day

Alison Day Design

First published in the Connections magazine #10 Winter 2006 

Dutch Campaign to ‘Keep Sugar in The Netherlands!’

As long as can be remembered and long before records were made, humans have extracted sugar from plants to use as a sweetener in some form or other. Sugar beet was first identified in 1747 and by 1880 had replaced sugar cane as the main source of sugar on continental Europe.

Sugar processing in the Northern Netherlands did not emerge until as late as 1914, and meantime sugar beet grown here had to be transported to factories in the south to be processed. It wasn’t until sugar produce had increased considerably in Groningen and Friesland, during the period of 1901-1910 that the Association of the Friese-Gronings Co-operative Beet Root Sugar Factory was set up in 1913. This association was responsible for building the sugar factory in 1914.

Although the Groningen sugar factory has received aid from the government in the form of subsidy and permanent control on growth and production since 1931, this does not detract from its role as a local employer and European sugar producer.

The factory is situated on the Groningen-Hoogkerk road south of the centre on the Hoendiep. The annual sugar beet processing period in the Northern Netherlands begins in September and continues 24 hours a day for four months, processing sugar beet produced from 105,000 acres of land. On average it takes 37 kilos of sugar beet to produce one bag of sugar that you buy in the supermarket. During this time the factory’s enormous chimneys emit a constant column of white smoke during the processing period. If the wind is blowing in the right direction, and dependent on at what stage the sugar making process is at, the smoke emissions can either be very sweet and sugary smelling, or in the extreme quite unpleasant

The Northern Netherlands has two main sugar beet companies, which process sugar beet. The Suiker Unie (The Sugar Union) and CSM. The Suiker Unie has a market share of 62.5% whilst the CSM has 37.5%. The Suiker Unie is a co-operative company, which means that the farmers are the shareholders.

Today, the sugar factory in Groningen has launched a publicity offensive against Brussels’ and plans to reform the European sugar market. A campaign slogan of ‘Keep Sugar in the Netherlands’, which the factory sports in the form of a large banner, announces this determination. A 96 day marathon, which started on 15^th September and runs to the 20th December 2005, organised by the CSM, aims to produce 340,000 tons of sugar during this period, and thereby showing the improved working relations with other factories abroad, as well as the adaptations to the factory itself.

The Dutch sugar industry aims, by campaigning, to ensure continuity within the industry as well as reducing the restrictions of importing sugar from under developed countries. This is underlined by the sugar industry’s reform proposals that have been collectively drawn up for a more equal and responsible sugar market for the European Community.

© Alison Day

Alison Day Design

First published in the Connections magazine #10 Winter 2006