After a hike up a mountain, a kayak ride across the lake or a long ride down the bike path, it feels so good to be back home. The same thing applies to vacations. They’re great fun, but being home again is just as delightful.

And so you want your home to be full of beautiful things, even in the loveliest weather. A crystal chandelier is festive by its very nature. It makes being at home feel as recreational as anything else.

From that point of view, you might like to push the envelope a bit with your choice of a crystal chandelier. Be a little more extravagant than your first impulse, a little more colorful or outrageous.

Why not indulge in a royal blue and purple crystal chandelier like Mardi Gras? Why not embrace a chandelier dripping with romance, like The Rose? Why not go all out   with a crystal chandelier drenched in fiery gold from crown to finial? I’m referring to Renaissance, Rialto or New Orleans with Strass® Golden Teak crystal.

Soon I’ll have lilacs blooming in the back yard. I’ll be filling my Japanese vases with them and setting them under the crystal chandeliers. I can just picture how fresh and alive the house will feel. The pleasures of being at home may be simple, but they’re also deep. “Wake up and smell the coffee!” is a justly famous exhortation. My version of it might be: “Wake up and savor the shimmer of your crystal chandeliers!”

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Can you lead the simple life and still justify owning a crystal chandelier? Absolutely! Baroque styles might be out of bounds, but Schonbek does have something for you.

Jasmine comes immediately to mind. Jasmine is a crystal chandelier with just one dangling crystal ornament, at the finial point. Otherwise all the crystal is integral to the design. The chandelier body is a sleek sculpture of massive crystal chunks, the central chunk dramatically faceted.

Because of its very simple lines, Jasmine will never strike anyone as being over the top. On the other hand, its very simplicity gives rise to an air of sophistication, like a slender, well groomed woman in a silky sheath, wearing no jewelry. Jasmine needs no jewelry because it’s a jewel itself.

The flawless purity and beauty of the crystal is paramount with Jasmine. If you’re leading the simple life, you’re noticing things like the freshness of the air after rain, the delicate coloring of a female cardinal, the inimitable taste of scones hot out of the oven. You’ll perceive with a delicious thrill the perfection of the crystal comprising Jasmine. We call it optic crystal because of its perfect optical purity.

Certain tiny crystal chandeliers are also very much in keeping with the simple life. Jasmine comes in a tiny size, a mere 12 inches in diameter. But I’m also thinking of a tiny Tesoro.

With a diameter of 12 inches, this little rock crystal chandelier has an almost rustic quality. The metalwork is rough, and formed by hand into leafy shapes and scrolls. All the crystal is natural rock crystal, big chunks of it, though used sparingly.   For a totally back-to-the-Earth feeling,   you could order this chandelier non-electrified. It’s easy to picture Tesoro with wax candles.

On a larger scale, Timbrel is a very simple crystal chandelier. The slender swooping arms make this a strikingly graceful design.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

The Schonbek website is now in five languages. We’re going online today with the Spanish, French, Italian and Russian pages.

Actually, Schonbek has been distributing crystal chandeliers around the world for a long time, since the nineteenth century in fact. Now the website reflects the true international character of the company. I’m very happy about this.

I love languages, and the way they reflect how people in different cultures think. I just read a story about an Amazon tribe whose language doesn’t have the pluperfect tense, because they live and think entirely in the present. I’m glad I didn’t have to deal with this language, since the crystal chandelier has a glorious past to celebrate, as well as a trendy present and future.

Anyway, working with all these translations was fascinating. I now know the word for crystal chandelier in five languages, just one of the many benefits of my job! The word for chandelier in Spanish is the same as spider, I suppose because a chandelier has many arms, just as a spider has many legs. I find this quite charming.

Some interesting translation challenges came up. For example, how to convey that a tiny crystal chandelier means the chandelier overall is tiny, not necessarily the crystal trim. Florentine is a totally tiny crystal chandelier, with a tiny frame, tiny crystal pendants and slender little arms. But then we have Mardi Gras with plump baroque cast arms, and Renaissance with oversized crystal pendants. It’s the dimensions of the crystal chandelier that determines whether we call it tiny, particularly the diameter.

Euroluce, the prestigious international trade fair in Milan, will be opening in a few hours, and it feels great to have an international website in place for this event.   I still remember the times I went to Milan to attend the show. It was dizzying to be among so many Schonbek crystal chandeliers. Our media director, who was with me, wore sunglasses to subdue the brilliance. But I have to confess I loved it.