Blog

The Dutch are meticulous record keepers and have records that stretch back hundreds of years. Baptisms, marriages, wills, bills of house sale and orphanage registries. My mom was born in Rotterdam in 1947 and emigrated to America in 1953 with my grandfather's job as a cocoa salesman.  Shortly after my mother's death in 2006, I moved to Amsterdam to attend graduate school. During weekend excursions to Middelburg and Leiden, I visited the civic archives. A basic grasp of Dutch knowledge allowed me to read names, numbers, occupations and town names on the old scripts. With online archives, I have traveled back nine generations in...

Our Honey Bee jewelry is made from original antique Victorian buttons from the late 19th century cast in silver and bronze. Perfect for beekeepers, gardeners and friends of the honey bee, our Queen Bee, Nectar and Beehive jewelry is inspired by a fascinating history. Bees and human culture have been in relation for more than 8,500 years and have strong links to mythology in many cultures. Believed by ancient Aegean and Near Eastern cultures to be the animal capable of traveling back and forth between the living and the land of the dead, the honey be holds an important place in many regions. The Minoan-Mycenaean figure Potnia...

Thanks to everyone who visited us at October events and helped us raise proceeds for the North Bay Fire Relief Fund at Redwood Credit Union, which benefits Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino, and Lake County. We are a small company, but we are doing what we can to help in the long-term recovery effort for our neighbors just north. We are donating 15% of sales on our website through the end of the year using code CPCdonates - and you save 15% on your order! If you'd like to skip the discount and make your donation larger, just add a note in your order. 

My mother was born in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. I grew up surrounded by the artifacts of her Dutch family culture: my great-grandmother’s brass teakettle and potato bucket, my grandmother's turn-of-the-century glass marbles, chipped from use. A child’s dress zipped up tight in a storage bag: lace cap, scratchy black wool top and striped skirt, a beaded necklace with coiled filigree clasp. I wore that outfit every Halloween for as many years as it fit me. These items of daily Dutch life and identity infused my childhood with history and culture. These small objects were a bridge back to my family's...