Friday, January 20, 2006

Before you put a Schonbek crystal chandelier in your bathroom, I should warn you, it will slow you down. I was late this morning partly because of it.

With a crystal chandelier and matching sconces in the bathroom, you no longer go in there like a robot in the morning, scrub down and race out.

You flick on the light and feel this welling up of pleasure. The crystal wall sconces on either side of the mirror invite you to take your time with brushing. You’ll brush the full two minutes recommended by your dentist.

As you do your grooming, you notice what you’re about. Light from a crystal chandelier just isn’t ordinary light. Everything in the room becomes interesting and worthy of attention.

Finally, getting a crystal chandelier is usually part of redecorating, or at least sprucing up the room where it will hang. So you’re also slowed down by admiring your décor. In my case, this involves wiping up every stray drop that falls on the hardwood floor and other surfaces. This does not feel like cleaning, even though that’s what it is. It’s just fun to keep everything looking nice.

I’m always seeing articles in popular magazines these days urging us to slow down. Certainly that argues for getting a crystal chandelier. We’ll just have to eliminate some busywork from our days to make up for the time we lose enjoying life.

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

I was on the road last week on a business trip and the weather conditions were awe-inspiring. There was a light mist in the mountains, and the mist seemed to have frozen on the trees. Every tree had a magical sheen as if encased in ice.

And I was reminded of certain beaded crystal chandeliers by Schonbek.

Perhaps the first person who ever thought of making a beaded crystal chandelier was struck by such a scene. I know Schonbek has been inspired by Nature in the design of many crystal chandeliers. Rivendell is the most obvious example.

I have often used the image of dewdrops on flowers when describing Rivendell. This crystal chandelier is enchanting, with its leafy, flowery framework richly embedded with crystal beads.

Sometimes, walking through the Schonbek factory, I see parts of a Rivendell in the process of being hand-inset with crystal beads. Even in an embryonic stage, this crystal chandelier looks beautiful. And I can see why the knock-off artists have pretty much despaired of copying Rivendell. The creation of this crystal chandelier is time consuming, challenging and requires lots of hand work. Making a crystal chandelier that evokes a flowering plant is not easy.

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

I had a lazy weekend for the first time in two months. As we slowly cleaned up after breakfast Saturday morning, we found ourselves standing in front of the Versailles crystal chandelier in our kitchen, making amazing discoveries.

This crystal chandelier is an airy composition of pendeloques suspended from slender baroque arms and scrolls. I always just assumed that the crystal pendeloques were all the same, but this weekend I realized they are not. Far from it. There are four distinctly different shapes, one in two sizes, to make five variations of pendeloques.

How could I have missed this? Perhaps it comes from the very harmony of the chandelier, the pleasant symmetry of the hanging points of the crystals.

Even though I never noticed the different pendeloques on this crystal chandelier, I did always get an impression of richness and liveliness. All the subtle design refinements in a Schonbek crystal chandelier work subconsciously on the observer, even if the observer (like me) is too distracted to see them.

It was a good thing I had a lazy weekend, because yesterday evening I had to write two more press releases for the Dallas show. Speaking of subtle design details, I love reading Andrew Schonbek’s notes on new crystal chandelier designs. That’s what I was working from. That, and photos. His notes reveal the complexities of the design process, the rush of inspiration that sweeps aside all obstacles, and the engineering feats that make a dramatic design possible.

When I’m writing a press release on a new crystal chandelier design, I’m like a method actor. I feel like I’m the one who designed this magnificent thing, and I can’t wait to tell the world about it. Strange delusion!