Travelling to the Rikjsmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden was nothing other than a joy. I went to visit their temporary exhibition entitled 5000 Years of Beads. They had on display their extensive bead collection all unearthed and gathered from around the Netherlands. The exhibition spanned from Neolithic finds including locally sourced pierced shells alongside contemporary bead artists using bead-weaving to document the daily Covid death count. For such a simple invention the bead maintains its attraction as a means to express. Beyond the exhibition the museum had a wonderful collection of Bronze Age jewellery which is on permanent display.
