This object might very well resemble a Geometrix® chandelier called the Refrax™ strip.

Sometimes we call this crystal chandelier “the room divider” because it’s a slab-shaped object that can be used to carve up space in a cavernous interior. In essence it’s a massive strip formed of thousands of crystal jewels.

This chandelier is all surface – fiery fantastic surface. You can’t see inside the slab. If this were that mysterious object in a sci-fi movie, the invisible interior is where the secrets of the universe would be stashed. But in fact, what’s inside is incredibly sophisticated lamping, a masterpiece of engineering that brilliantly and evenly illuminates the chandelier.

We probably shouldn’t call this Refrax™ chandelier the room divider, because it might easily be used for other purposes (mostly artistic, occasionally practical).

You might hang a Refrax™ strip chandelier in front of a wall and call it cubist art made of light.

In a very lofty interior, you might stagger several of these chandeliers irregularly, way up high, to take bold possession of the overhead space with some kind of artistic statement.

If you have a minimalist dining room with a high ceiling and a long table made of technical looking materials, you could park your Refrax™ strip above the table – an edgy substitute for the traditional crystal chandelier.

So if you enjoy playing with visual fields in new and startling ways, do check out the Refrax™ strip chandelier. It comes in several amazing crystal colors, as well as clear crystal.

Thursday, July 31, 2008
It’s eighty degrees and sunny, and I’m writing holiday ads. Magazines close months in advance, so ad writers often have to think winter in summer, and vice versa.

Since I have to think so far ahead, I’d like to suggest you do, too.

If you want a crystal chandelier in place for the November and December holidays, the real time to start planning is now.

Not that you can’t walk into a showroom and buy a display chandelier at the last minute. You can. Even ordering in advance to get the finish and crystal options you want can be done just a month or two ahead. But if you work this close to your deadline, you’ll miss all the fun of shopping (mental and physical) for your crystal chandelier.

My approach to buying a crystal chandelier is to give serious consideration to every style in the whole Schonbek line that might work. Why not explore every possibility? You picture each chandelier in the setting, think about what size you need, what color finish, what type of crystal. You ponder the question of which furnishings would have to change if you went with that chandelier, not to mention wall and window treatments. Maybe you’re redesigning the whole room. Or maybe you’re trying to salvage as much existing décor as possible. Either way, you have a lot to think about.

And you may, as I do, have a spouse who has opinions of his own. So you have to take his ideas into account, or make him think you are.

People are always saying it’s the journey that counts, not the destination. When it comes to the purchase of a Schonbek crystal chandelier, it’s both. You’ll have great fun planning for your chandelier, and then, at the end of the project, you’ll have the lifetime pleasure of living with an amazing work of decorative art.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Which Schonbek crystal chandelier design has the most historic resonance for Schonbek? I would have to say Olde World.

If you could look back to the late nineteenth century in Bohemia, where Schonbek was founded, and peer into the drawing rooms and rooms of state of the leaders of fashion and politics, you’d probably see glass-arm chandeliers very much in the style of Olde World.

This style of chandelier is called all-crystal, or glass arm, as you wish. “All-crystal” sounds prettier, but might not as clearly convey that the arms are made of crystal.

Since crystal arms are not as sturdy as metal, all-crystal chandeliers must be very carefully designed and engineered to support the weight of heavy crystal ornaments. Schonbek is an absolute master of the all-crystal chandelier, and has built chandeliers in this style in enormous sizes, seemingly in defiance of the laws of physics.

This tells you that the Schonbek all-crystal chandelier you might select for your dining room or foyer will be very well built indeed.

Actually, all-crystal chandeliers date back to the eighteenth century, but the form they achieved by the nineteenth century is what you see reflected in Olde World.

Why was this style so popular in nineteenth-century Bohemia? Possibly in reaction to the political and economic struggles going on in that era. Beautiful homes are a comfort to people of power and position in turbulent times.

Olde World is a very complex design, a chandelier that reveals new charms every time you look at it. The graceful arc of the crystal scrolls at the crown, the elaborate cutting of the crystal column pieces, the beautifully scalloped crystal bobeches – these are all details to savor. And the STRASS® Swarovski® crystal ornaments, absolutely dazzling in any context, are especially so in this totally crystalline context.