Where Light Meets Imagination: A conversation with Toverlux

Find a quiet spot, pour a cup of tea and join us for a conversation with Toverlux, who this season invite us to slow down and listen in a little closer.

There are some things from childhood that truly stay with us long into our adult lives, whether it be a favourite story or the way it was told, the way birthdays were celebrated, creating nature tables to mark the changing seasons, or the simple glow of a bedside lamp! These moments are bringing comfort still all throughout the year, and now we carry them with our own children.

It is this sense of wonder that first drew us to Toverlux, a brand who are shaping something beautiful and very special indeed.

Toverlux was created by lifelong friends and mothers Annefleur and Femke, and it began with a shared dream of creating something that could bring warmth, imagination and connection into family life. Today, their lamps and silhouettes invite children and adults alike to slow down, follow the rhythm of the seasons and create little moments of magic together.

Here we invite Annefleur and Femke to tell us a little more about their story. Thank you so much to you both for being here and talking with us!

Photo: Toverlux 

Can you take us back to the very beginning, what was happening in your lives when the first idea for Toverlux appeared?

Toverlux began long before we knew we were creating Toverlux.

For me, Annefleur, the first seed was planted during a precious and difficult time in my life, marked by love and loss. I was carrying so much love that needed somewhere to go. Almost intuitively, I began working with wool. With my hands, I could pour those feelings into soft little worlds filled with warmth, beauty and imagination, also for my girls growing up beside me. Creating became another language, a way of transforming what lived within me. These wool paintings eventually grew into the start of Het Wol Feetje.

I loved holding those paintings up to the light. Suddenly every tiny fibre and layer became visible and the colours came alive. The image was still the same, yet the light revealed something new.

Femke and I have been best friends since we were seventeen, and we wanted to create a lamp and started exploring that little bit of magic together. We experimented with printing the wool paintings on a material that could be illuminated, created our first lamp, and from there Toverlux began to unfold.

Looking back, it feels very fitting. Life moves through seasons of light and darkness, growth and stillness. We cannot always choose what comes our way, but we can choose what we create from it.

  You describe Toverlux as growing from shared childhood dreams. What parts of your own childhood have found their way into what you have created?

What Femke and I recognised in each other very early on was a sense of connection that we had both carried with us from childhood. Not only with nature and the world around us, but with something larger than ourselves. A feeling that life has a rhythm, that everything is somehow connected, and that there is meaning and beauty to be found beyond what we can simply see.

Children seem to still live very naturally in that space. Their world is not yet divided into what is real and what is magical, what is self and what is other. They still experience themselves as part of a greater whole. We both find that incredibly beautiful, and it is a way of seeing that neither of us ever wanted to completely grow out of.

Femke and I actually had very different childhoods, but perhaps that makes it even more special that we carried so many of the same things forward from them. From very different starting points, we both came to treasure the warmth of family, the little traditions that return year after year, stories, nature and those seemingly ordinary moments together that often become the memories you hold most dearly.

What we have brought into Toverlux is not our childhoods themselves, but what they taught us to hold on to: connection, imagination, a sense of something greater, and the ability to still find a little magic in everyday life.

There is something wonderfully simple about a lamp isn’t there, a gentle and little light! The atmosphere it creates can feel quite magical. What do you think it is about light and shadow that speaks so deeply to children?

The first thing would be that there is something almost ancient about our connection to light. We gather around it, we find ourselves drawn to it, we find warmth and safety in it, and when the world becomes darker, even the smallest light can draw us closer together. Children feel this very intuitively.

There is a natural kind of magic in the play between light and dark. Darkness leaves something to the imagination, while light can suddenly reveal, transform or let us see something from a completely new perspective. Together they make the world feel a little less ordinary. Children are especially open to that. They don’t need everything to be explained or fully visible. They follow their curiosity and allow themselves to wonder about what might be there.

When you first imagined the Toverlux Magic Lamp, what did you hope it would bring into a family's home?

We didn’t want the lamp to be something static, just a beautiful light in the home. We hoped it would move with a family through different seasons and stages of life. A little light that invites connection with nature, with each other, and that invites creativity and togetherness. Illuminating those seemingly small, everyday moments that often turn out to be the most precious ones.

We both come from a background in orthopedagogy and share a deep love for child development and family life. So perhaps it was only natural that we wanted to create something that could bring a little more warmth, connection and wonder into those everyday family moments.

And now we actually get to see that happening. How amazing is that?! We pinch ourselves sometimes and it feels unreal. Families share glimpses of their own little rituals, celebrations and everyday moments with us, and it genuinely moves us. To see something we once dreamed become part of other families’ memories makes us feel incredibly rich. It is exactly what we hoped for, and what inspires us to keep creating.

Has the original vision changed at all as you have watched families use Toverlux in their homes?

Not really changed, but definitely deepened. Seeing families make Toverlux their own, in ways we could never have imagined, continues to inspire us and has only strengthened the vision we started with.

Nature and the rhythm of the year feel like such an important part of your brand. Your collections move through the seasons which invite families to bring that changing rhythm into the home in a really lovely and gentle way.

Do you have a particular season that holds a special place in your hearts?

For Annefleur, that’s spring. I was born on a bright spring Sunday and have always felt like a true spring child.

There is something almost magical about the creative force and resilience of the earth in spring. Even before much is visible, you can feel it stirring in the air. And then, year after year, life simply begins again. With fresh energy, the earth unfolds itself into green, blossom and new life, as if it is endlessly willing to start over. That’s so inspiring to me.

I love the unpredictability of spring too. There is this wonderful feeling that nothing has taken its final shape yet, that everything is still becoming and so much is possible.

I love every season, but watching our garden slowly awaken brings me so much joy. Spring reminds me that life is always moving, creating and beginning again.

For Femke, it is autumn. I love that first change in the air, when the sun can still feel warm on my face but I can already sense the cold underneath. The colours deepen, the fireplace can be lit again and somehow that first cup of tea tastes better.

Autumn awakens something nostalgic in me, a feeling of warmth and coming home. I love the flavours and spices of the season too, the kind of food that seems to nourish something deeper inside. After the openness of summer, autumn feels like a gentle invitation to turn inward again, gather close and find warmth within.

What do you hope children experience when a Toverlux silhouette changes with the season, perhaps from an autumn scene to a winter story, or from winter into spring?

We hope children feel that they are part of nature and its seasons, rather than simply watching them pass by. That what changes in the world outside also resonates within us: growth, abundance, letting go, stillness and beginning again. By bringing the seasons into the home, we hope to nurture that natural sense of connection, of belonging to the living world and moving with its rhythms.

Can you tell us more about your Waldorf connection, and how that has inspired pieces within your collection?

Waldorf feels very close to the way we experience life ourselves. The sense that everything has its own rhythm, that we are connected to nature, to each other and to something larger than ourselves. That there is meaning in the seasons, in doing things with intention, in creating with our hands, and in leaving a little room for magic and wonder.

This naturally flows into our collection: through the stories we tell, the seasons and festivals we celebrate, our love for handcraft and the care with which things are made. Our artists are all Waldorf or nature inspired in one way or another, creating by hand with traditional techniques such as watercolour, wool and transparency paper. It gives the collection a very human quality, something made with attention, imagination and soul.

After so many years of friendship, what have you learned about one another through building a business together?

From the moment we met at seventeen, we had this feeling that we had somehow known each other much longer. We are quite different in character, but deeply aligned in how we see life and what truly matters to us. Our husbands sometimes joke that we are more married to each other than to them ;) Toverlux feels a little like our child, something we dreamed up and now get to watch grow together. It is very special to share that journey with your best friend. But we always say that whatever happens in business, our friendship comes first.

Building Toverlux has also shown us new sides of ourselves and each other, and has deepened our friendship in ways we could never have imagined. One important lesson Toverlux taught us is to trust our own way of doing business female style. We lead very much through intuition and feeling. Of course the numbers have to work, but they are not what primarily drives us. When we started we often wondered if we were “businesslike” enough, we now trust our feminine strength and the way we choose to shape our company.

 And has becoming mothers changed the way you think about the things you create for children and families?

Absolutely. Motherhood has been the starting point of everything and has probably influenced Toverlux more than anything else. Our children brought us back to that way of seeing the world with wonder, where imagination and reality still flow naturally into one another and there is magic to be found in the smallest things.

It also made us realise how precious those everyday family moments are, and how they need to be nurtured. Making space for stories, creativity, traditions, being together and following the rhythms of nature and the seasons. These simple moments often become the memories we carry with us through life.

That is something we bring into everything we create: not to fill a child’s world, but to nurture the wonder, imagination and connection that are already there.

And of course, our children are still our most honest critics and our very first testers!

Toverlux has grown from an humble idea shared between two friends into a much wider creative community. How do you protect the feeling and values that were there at the very beginning as the brand continues to grow?

For us, it honestly still feels like that little idea between the two of us. Sometimes we stop and think about the fact that somewhere on the other side of the world, a family is switching on a Toverlux lamp in their home. That still feels completely unreal to us. We never want to lose that feeling!

We put so much of ourselves into Toverlux, so the people we bring close to it really matter. We naturally find ourselves working with people who share that same love for life, nature, creativity and family, and who understand what we are trying to bring into the world.

And perhaps that is why growing doesn’t feel like Toverlux is becoming less personal. It feels like the circle is simply getting bigger, with more people adding their own heart and creativity while helping us spread a little more light into the world.

Has there ever been a moment in the journey of Toverlux when you had to stop and ask yourselves, “Is this still us?” And if so, what did you learn from it?

Yes, definitely. Around this time last year, things became really intense. Toverlux was growing quickly and we were incredibly grateful, but before we knew it, most of our days were about simply keeping everything running.

It wasn’t that Toverlux no longer felt like us. It still did, but the way we were doing it was asking too much of us. We needed space to zoom out again, to create and to dream. And when work starts taking too much away from our families or ourselves, we know the balance isn’t right.

We never had the goal to grow as fast as possible. We want to grow organically and with care. Bringing in more helping hands gave us that breathing room again, and we are much more conscious now of protecting that balance.

We also don’t dream of growing endlessly. We actually feel that the size we would love Toverlux to become is not that far from where we are now. From there, it is much more about nurturing what we have built, deepening it and keeping it beautiful, meaningful and full of life.

We’ve learned that it is not only about what we create, but also about how we want to live while creating it.

One of the things that I really love about Toverlux is that it isn't only about your products. It very much feels like there is a wonderful community of artists and illustrators whose work has become part of it all too!

You collaborate with artists from across the world and within the Waldorf community. Is this something you have done from the beginning?

Yes, absolutely. From the very beginning, we wanted Toverlux to be something we created together with others. We really believe in community, in supporting each other and in spreading a little more light together.

Many of our artists we first met personally at Waldorf markets. We fell in love with their work, but often a personal connection grew alongside it too. Every new collaboration has to feel like a natural match, that little spark where we simply feel: yes, this belongs with Toverlux.

That community has become very precious to us. With many of our Dutch artists, we regularly meet for a long lunch, share ideas and catch up on life. They have really become part of the Toverlux family.

Are there particular artists or collaborations that have surprised or moved you along the way?

Elsa Beskow was a very special one for me, Annefleur. Her stories and illustrations carry so many warm memories of my own childhood, and I have always had a soft spot for the feeling of nostalgia they bring.

Seeing those familiar illustrations light up in a Toverlux lamp for the first time was quite magical. Something that had lived in my memories for so long suddenly appeared in a completely new light. And I love that these stories can now find their way into the childhood memories of a new generation.

For me, Femke, one of those moments came with Baukje Exler and her Ethereal Creation. It was one of the first times I really felt that we were being given the opportunity to bring something truly special into the light and share it with the world through our lamp. That feeling has never really left me.

When you look towards the future what are you most excited for, both inside Toverlux and out!

Inside Toverlux, we are so excited to simply keep creating! Dreaming up new collections, collaborations and products together is still one of the things Femke and I love most. We launch twice a year and somehow, with every idea we bring to life, three new ones seem to appear on our wish list. And there are already so many beautiful things coming in our next collections that we are almost bursting to share them with you!

Outside Toverlux, we want to enjoy our families and the season of life we are in right now. Our children are growing up so quickly that sometimes it feels like we are just happily trying to keep up with them. We want to be there for it, spend time with the people we love and create a little more room for simply enjoying life together.

Is there something you have dreamed of creating for a long time but haven't yet brought to life?

Oh yes, we have quite a list! ;) And there is something coming next year, hopefully as part of our Spring/Summer collection in February, that we are especially excited about.

The idea was born during one of our get-togethers and just grew from there. It is a very special collaboration with beautiful people we have had the chance to get to know better, who put so much heart and soul into what they do. What we are creating really feels like a reflection of all of us, which makes it even more special.

It is still in the works, but it is so beautiful already, and we honestly can’t wait to finally share it with you!

And finally and perhaps most importantly, what do you hope never changes about Toverlux, however much the brand grows?

The heart of it. That Toverlux always stays close to why we began: to shine a little light on the beauty, wonder and connection that are already there in everyday family life.

We hope we never stop following what feels right, even when it may not always be the most obvious business decision. That there is always room for intuition, creativity, personal relationships and the people behind everything we do.

And perhaps most of all, that we never become too big to still feel the magic ourselves. To get excited about a new illustration lighting up for the first time, share ideas over a cup of tea, or receive a little glimpse of a Toverlux moment in someone’s home somewhere in the world. If we can hold on to that, Toverlux will always feel like us.

 Interview and photos by Katie Williams @apocketofforest