Hellen van Berkel has worked as a textile designer in the Netherlands since graduating from Eindhoven in 1989. In 2013 she founded Heartmade Prints, that works with a small Calcutta workshop, where master embroidery artists 
make fabulous beaded jewelry. Van Berkel's contemporary interpretations of famous paintings are themselves miniature works of art!

"The Swan" brooch,  inspired by Jan Asselijin's famous allegorical painting of 1650, measures 2 3/4" high.