I started my company in 2004 under the name Miraculous Mirrors, but soon took the working name handpop.nl because Miraculous Mirrors by most people was not associated with hand puppets. Handpop.nl (handpuppet.nl) covered the load better.
Handpop.nl started on a very small scale and was aimed at advising, informing and training teachers who wanted to do more with a puppet in the classroom. In September 2004 a small webshop was added with which I started offering good quality puppets. In a few years’ time, hand puppet .nl grew into the hand puppet pen address for education, childcare and social care, and the hand puppet pen collection kept growing. The webshop became so large that it was separated from the informative website of handpop.nl from 2012 and started running independently as handpoppen.nl.
In August 2019 I sold both handpop.nl and handpoppen.nl. The company had grown into a broad webshop with a wide range of hand puppets. There was something suitable for everyone and for every target group. For me it was time to say goodbye to the webshop. We both grew, but not in the same direction.
I am particularly interested in what makes the hand puppet so valuable for child development and how you can use that magic to perform small miracles. Handpop.nl has left good hands behind and i’ve been faithful to my heart: using the magic of the hand puppet to stimulate development. I became a trainer and developed the training to become a hand puppet coach.
At the beginning of 2021 I emigrated to Bonaire and I continued the company as Helen Meurs BV, Miraculous Mirrors (Wonderbaarlijke Spiegels) and Hand puppet coach.nl (handpopcoach.nl) have remained trade names.
