I’d heard of “Trollbeads” before, but I didn’t really know what they were until my cousin returned from a trip to Italy where she bought one. Trollbeads are amazingly high-quality beads made from a variety of different premium materials and designed by numerous different people. They work almost like a charm bracelet, allowing the wearer to attach any bead to a chain to make her own piece of bead jewelry with its own story! They’ve been popular in Europe for years but they’re only now really starting to make inroads to the United States market.

Trollbeads has a European and a United States website. The European Trollbeads website is a little odd with some strangely creepy drawings super-imposed over model photos, but explains the overall concept better than I can:

Trollbeads is unique jewellery. Each bead has its own little history, taking its inspiration from mythology, astrology, fairy tales, fauna, flora, cultural diversity, and last but certainly not least, in the familiar things of everyday living.

What is most distinctive about Trollbeads, apart from the original design, is the use and combination of fascinating materials. The beads are made from the highest quality raw materials including sterling silver, 18 carat gold, Italian Murano glass, natural pearls and precious stones.

The European website has all the beads available, broken out by different categories such as pendants, beads with stones and beads made with different materials. You can even click on each bead to read about the inspiration and then read about the designer of that bead.

The United States Trollbeads website has just about all the same information, but it’s organized in a different way. I found the European website to be a little more fun to look at, but I thought the United States website was a little better organized. I’m absolutely amazed at all the different types of beads and it’s kind of fun to think of what kind of charm bracelets and bead jewelry I could make with all of these.

The online sites don’t directly sell Trollbeads, but you can pick them up from a number of different third party stores that specialize in high end beads and bead jewelry.

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