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Colette Berends 1934-2012

Colette Berends (Netherlands)
[ October 13, 1934 - April 23, 2012 ]

 
This page is dedicated to Colette Berends, and contain articles and stories about her remarkable life and wonderful art. The page is now being augmented, as we collect weblinks, articles and photographs that tell her story and show some of her artistry.
 
As a beautiful young entertainer in the Netherlands, Colette began her transition from MtF during her early twenties. For fifteen long years she worked in showbiz, working '"everywhere" in Europe and North-africa, "swallowing hormones and saving for operations". Colette completed her TS transition in 1971, undergoing SRS by Dr. Georges Burou in Casablanca, Morocco. She went on to further fame as an entertainer, and has travelled over much of the world. Later in life Colette became the owner-operator of a beauty salon in Zwolle in the Netherlands. Always a very creative person she also began her explorations in textile artistry, and that work that has since won her many awards.

                                                    Colette in 1968                                                                
          
 Colette in 1980 in Zurich
[ Photos from "Van jongen tot vrouw met allure", Zwolsche Courant, 21 maart 1986 ]
 
Now 68 years of age, Colette enjoys working part-time at her salon. This enables her to spend plenty of time on her textile artistry, and on teaching others the special techniques of that art form. She also enjoys taking frequent vacation trips with her boyfriend Ton, a steady partner for the past 21 years.

Ton and Colette


On Vacation

We are now translating articles and webpages about Colette into English and are posting the translations here. Colette has also sent us more photos of her artistry, and we are compiling pages of those photos into a web gallery of her work.  To get a glimpse of Colette's life and her art, you can explore the following webpages (you can use FreeTranslation to visualize essentials of stories not yet translated into English):

Here is a glimpse of Colette Berends' textile-collage artistry.

De Clowns. Textielcollage, by Colette Berends
108cm x 152cm
(1e Prijs European Championship of Quilts 1998)
 
 
 
 
Avondje uit. Textielcollage
 
 
 
 
Fellini's Roma. Textielcollage
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