Friday, August 31, 2007

We have a new video on the website, of the new Da Vinci™ LED. Choose your format and have a look.

Even on video, it’s difficult to convey the feeling of the light show you get with the LED. In copy I’ve described the movement from one color to the next as “dreamlike.” Truly it happens very slowly. You’re looking at blue, and at some point the blue seems vaguely invaded by teal, and at some point that color takes over, but not entirely. Some other color is already starting to manifest ever so slightly. You’re always in an illusory space of sorts.

Colors do contain each other and flow into each other in physical reality, and you can experience this in a delicious, visceral way as you contemplate Da Vinci™ LED.

I really believe we need more things to look at: the depths of meaning in a work of art, the shimmer of flames in a fireplace, the prismatic dance of light in a crystal chandelier. There’s too much speeding through life without enjoying the view.

A Da Vinci™ LED in your home will probably inspire you to throw more parties. This is a good thing, because you might start taking for granted even such an astonishing object as your Da Vinci™. It seems to be human nature to slip into complacency. But looking at things through the eyes of one’s friends is a whole new way to enjoy them.

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Eileen Schonbek Beer collected rocks and minerals as a child. There’s a definite connection here with rock crystal chandeliers. Eileen is Schonbek’s creative director.

Eileen’s father, Arnold Schonbek, was delighted with her interest in gemstones. Over the years he trained her to become Schonbek’s crystal expert. Natural rock crystal quartz was the original crystal, of course. What we call crystal today is actually very fine quality glass cut or molded in decorative shapes.

Being historians of crystal, as well as designers of crystal chandeliers, Eileen and her brother Andrew Schonbek could not resist the idea of reviving rock crystal chandeliers for a contemporary audience. It was a time-consuming and challenging endeavor. The Schonbeks had to develop their own source of this semi-precious quartz in order to satisfy their standards. Not just any rock crystal would do. The Schonbeks were looking for gem-quality quartz.

I suppose I’m excited about rock crystal these days because of the new chandelier designs just published in the Schonbek master catalog. Today we put two more of these designs on the Rock Crystal Chandeliers web page: Hamilton with an eclectic mix of  rock crystal and clear crystal, and a very traditional La Scala with rock crystal.

Rock crystal chandeliers have an air of mystery, and rock crystal itself has always enthralled philosophers and collectors.

Centuries ago some people thought that rock crystal was ice that somehow  got permanently frozen. Rock crystal is curiously cool to the touch, due to the terrific forces it was subjected to in the formative years of the Earth.

In ancient Rome, Patrician women wore rock crystal jewelry on hot days to stay cool. I thought of this a bit enviously today when I went out at lunchtime. The temperature was 91 degrees.

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

I can’t look at the full moon now without envisioning it gleaming at the finial point of a Schonbek rock crystal chandelier.

The resemblance between a large rock crystal sphere and the full moon is uncanny. I was looking at the moon above my house last night and seeing the markings on its glowing surface as the fissures and inclusions that appear in highly polished rock crystal quartz. I suppose it’s a severe case of taking your work home.

Schonbek has given the world a tremendous gift with its rock crystal chandelier designs. A single rock crystal gemstone is a marvel, a souvenir from the tumultuous times when the Earth was forming, the result of tremendous pressures, unimaginably high temperatures and cataclysmic geological events. With a rock crystal chandelier, you have a whole collection of these gemstones artfully arranged for your pleasure in a fantastically decorative light source.

Every time you step into a room with a Schonbek rock crystal chandelier, you can contemplate the mysteries of the universe. Or just enjoy the beauty of it.

Schonbek not only revived the classic rock crystal chandelier for our times, bringing it out of the museum context and into the lives of contemporary homeowners. But as usual, Schonbek also reinvented the form. If you look at the designs on the Rock Crystal Chandeliers page of this website, you’ll see tremendous variety. I’m now in a phase of being partial to the designs that mix rock crystal with clear and colored crystal. Successfully combining these very different types of crystal requires a true artist’s eye. Trust Schonbek to do it perfectly.

Particularly amazing is the combination of glossy jet black crystal, prismatic clear crystal and gleaming rock crystal. Study this version of Hamilton to see what I mean.

Of course you can’t experience the allure of rock crystal from a low-resolution image on a website. If the idea of a rock crystal chandelier appeals to you, I would urge you to visit the nearest Schonbek rock crystal dealer. If you live some distance from a showroom, then plan a special trip. A collection of Schonbek rock crystal chandeliers is as well worth seeing as many an art exhibit.