Friday, April 14, 2006

Crystal is something I never knew a thing about until I starting writing about Schonbek crystal chandeliers. I’m pretty sure it’s not an area of expertise for most people, even those who own a crystal chandelier or two.

I used to assume that crystal chandelier companies made the crystal as well as the chandelier, but that’s not the case. Fine crystal is imported from countries where conditions are suitable for producing it. Schonbek chandeliers are made in America, and are trimmed with imported crystal.

Nonetheless, to make a beautiful chandelier, it’s important to be a connoisseur of crystal, which the Schonbeks are.

The late Arnold Schonbek, the family member who brought the company from Europe to North America, used to take his children, Andrew and Eileen, around the world to study crystal in various traditional workshops. He understood all the technical aspects of blowing glass, cutting crystal, making glass arms etc., from first-hand experience. Today Andrew and Eileen continue the tradition of personal involvement in crystal sourcing. Like an art expert who’s called in to pronounce on the authenticity of a Rembrandt, they can recognize every nuance of quality in crystal, and they purchase only first quality for their chandeliers.

Schonbek uses a plethora of different types of crystal. When they design a crystal chandelier, the crystal displayed will depend entirely on the design. With some Schonbek chandeliers, you have a choice of crystal types. For example, you might be able to choose among Strass®, Swarovski Spectra® or Heritage Handcut®. When there are options like this, you can make a decision based on price, if you wish. Or you might just say you want the finest in the world, which would be Strass®.

I personally like the idea of a crystal chandelier trimmed with handcut crystal. Every crystal jewel is cut and polished by hand, using techniques handed down over hundreds of years. The work is time-consuming and exacting. This crystal is brilliant and highly prismatic, though not quite as dazzling as Strass®, which owes its perfection to precision machine-cutting.

Handcut colored crystal is another favorite of mine. It’s just as prismatic as clear crystal, and you have the beauty of the rich colors, too.

Yet another favorite (can I have three favorites?) would be crystal chandeliers with Vintage Crystal®. Florentine is a lovely example. The crystal is daintily formed in heirloom shapes.

Can I have four favorites? I mustn’t forget rock crystal, which maybe I should move to the top of my list. A rock crystal chandelier is truly a treasure. Each rock crystal ornament is like a souvenir from the cataclysmic times when the Earth came into being. It was made by forces of Nature. Artisans carve it into ornamental shapes and polish it to a silky smoothness, but the wildness of its origin is always there to fascinate you .

There’s a write-up about various crystal types on this website. But if it’s too much to take it, don’t be concerned. If you buy a crystal chandelier by Schonbek, you never have to worry about the quality of the crystal. The Schonbeks are doing that for you.

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

When I walk home from work, as I did last night, I pass by a lot of very large homes. I have a tendency to look at them and imagine how they look inside and how I’d decorate them if I owned them. They’re completely beyond my income level, but it’s still fun to think about this.

It goes without saying I’d have a crystal chandelier in every room.

It would be interesting, I think, to create several different environments within the same home, each with a crystal chandelier appropriate to its mood.

In sprawling Victorian country estates it was customary to decorate all the guest rooms differently, to give them character. So one guest might stay in the Blue Room, another in the Willow Room, and so forth.

I’d keep the basic style of my mansion somewhat traditional, but vary the color palette.

One environment I’d really like, that I don’t have in my present home, is an outrageously colorful room. The focal point would be a Mardi Gras crystal chandelier. And I’d have matching Mardi Gras crystal lamps. The walls would be red, the sofa purple. Useless little pieces of antique furniture would abound. There’d be a Persian rug, romantically faded, and velvet drapes. I’d have ancestor photos tightly arranged on one wall, even if I had to buy my ancestors from an antique shop.

I once had to write a description of an imaginary room for a creative writing class. My imaginary room with the Mardi Gras crystal chandelier makes me think of that.

If you like to express your creativity by designing your environment, at some level you’re doing this all the time. I have a habit, wherever I go, of thinking how the space I’ve just entered might be improved by a Schonbek crystal chandelier, and usually a few other judicious alterations. I suspect that most owners of Schonbek crystal chandeliers tend to do this, because it’s so obvious to us what a difference a chandelier makes.

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

I was in Montreal this past weekend and did some shopping. Being a stranger to the scene, I wandered into all kinds of boutiques. Not only did I see some great fashions, I saw several crystal chandeliers.

This surprised me a little. I expect to see crystal chandeliers in fancy hotels and high-end jewelry stores, but not in a clothing boutique catering to teenagers! Montreal has a very European feeling, which fits right in with crystal chandeliers, of course. And the very young have an instinct for what’s in and what’s not. Crystal chandeliers are clearly in, with every age group.

I wrote a case study on this website about crystal chandeliers in a mall in Cancun. The mall is part of Grupo UltraFemme, and I still remember how enthusiastic the president was about Schonbek. She sincerely felt that the presence of Schonbek crystal chandeliers in their many stores over the years had contributed to their growth. Grupo UltraFemme had Schonbek build a custom crystal chandelier to wrap around a huge column, an interesting idea.

I was in a particularly upbeat mood on Saturday, browsing all the shops. The sun was out, the temperature perfect, and the whole city seemed in high spirits. For me, the occasional crystal chandelier I encountered added to the fun.