Wednesday, November 23, 2006

The Designer Night in Orlando last week was a big success. Some 80 interior designers attended and had a good time, from what I just heard.

Dirk Wald was the speaker for Schonbek. He playfully pretended to have grown The Rose collection overnight from seeds. The Rose crystal chandeliers are new and come in so many crystal colors, they certainly do share with botanical roses the quality of profusion.

Dirk loves Schonbek crystal chandeliers and really enjoys educating people about crystal. He’s equally enthusiastic about Geometrix™.

It fascinates me that Schonbek can be adept at creating an intensely romantic crystal chandelier like The Rose, as well as a minimalist crystal chandelier likeVertex™. Perhaps the truth is that even a high tech crystal chandelier inspires passion. The fire of crystal is deeply thrilling, whether it’s used in traditional or geometric forms.

A new series of Designer Nights will begin in the spring. The dates and locations won’t be finalized until February, probably. So if you’re interested, you should check back then. The page is called “For Interior Designers Only.”

For the Orlando Designer Night Schonbek announced that an interior designer could bring along a favorite customer, and I think that will be the case from now on. So if you’re working with an interior designer next year on a renovation or a new home, you might consider attending a Designer Night with your designer.

But I just remembered it’s the day before Thanksgiving, and I should have been blogging about that! Of course I don’t have to worry much about the holiday, because we’re serving gourmet take-out turkey. Even more significant, I have my crystal chandeliers already in place to welcome guests and enhance the taste of whatever I serve. If you’re not yet in this enviable position, it’s something to think about. You still have time before the next holiday to get a Schonbek. You might want to take advantage of the long weekend to visit a lighting showroom.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

I went for a haircut the other day and was thoroughly traumatized.

The lighting in hair salons is cruel. Under the glaring fluorescent light, I saw dark circles under my eyes I didn’t know I had, and a variety of other imperfections that would firmly disqualify me for a romantic role in a movie.

Hair stylists really need crystal chandeliers.

I would gladly forgive Wendy for missing a few hairs if I could have my hair cut by the flattering light of a crystal chandelier.

There are many grades of fluorescent lighting, but most people don’t know this and just buy whatever’s readily available. It doesn’t occur to them to worry about all the people who will be looking bad and feeling bad in their space for years to come.

A crystal chandelier creates living light. There’s a tendency to think that harsh bright light gives a more accurate picture of what you really look like. But nothing could be further from the truth. Fluorescent light is cold dead light and it deadens your expression and your complexion.

Your face, after all, is aglow with life. Your very cells are changing every minute. Your thoughts and emotions are tightening or relaxing your skin, putting a tint in your cheeks, igniting a fire in your eyes. All this subtle shifting of facial energy, color and movement is what makes the human face so interesting, and fluorescent light can’t cope with it.

The interaction of light with crystal creates the world’s most flattering illumination; namely, prismatic light. This quality of light has a lot in common with the energy of the human face – depth, richness, movement, color, unpredictability.

Do I feel like a heroine of  romance at home, by the light of my crystal chandeliers? Well yes, I sometimes manage to. Having a romantic husband helps, too.

Nonetheless, fluorescent lighting is gaining adherents because it’s energy efficient. But I maintain that crystal chandeliers are energy efficient too! 25-watt bulbs look best on a crystal chandelier, and it takes four of these to add up to 100 watts. On top of that, you probably dim your crystal chandeliers most of the time (I do) to achieve a more subtle brilliance, thus saving lots of energy.

Wendy could have crystal chandeliers in her salon, pleasantly dimmed down, and a few strategically placed task lights to focus on our wet heads. Crystal chandeliers generally need supplemental task lighting in any case.

Figuring out how to mix your light sources successfully can be technically challenging. Most Schonbek dealers have highly trained lighting consultants on staff who can help.

Monday, November 20, 2006

Over the weekend my husband and I went to a dinner party hosted and attended by kayakers. Everyone (except me) kayaked, even the children.

As we stood around eating hors d’oeuvres, someone asked me, “So what do you do with yourself if you don’t kayak?”

An astonishing question. I replied, “I read. Sometimes I take walks.”

While he was assuring me that he, too, occasionally read a book, so that I wouldn’t feel inferior about my empty recreational life, my eyes wandered around the room and I mentally redecorated it with crystal chandeliers.

It was a large open space, with the kitchen flowing into the living room. The walls were white, the ceilings very high and variously angled. I envisioned how wonderful a huge Da Vinci™ crystal chandelier would look in that vast empty space. And I had observed a neat and clean feeling about this house that made me feel certain these people would appreciate a dishwasher safe crystal chandelier like Da Vinci™.

Then I turned my attention to the kitchen. The man of the house had made his own kitchen cabinets, and they were beautiful. They deserved to be in company with some interesting lighting. Vertex® spotlights in clear crystal would have looked fabulous, and would tie in with the Da Vinci™ crystal chandelier.

I kept my observations to myself, however. As a person who’d never paddled a kayak, let alone rolled a kayak in icy waters, my behavior was odd enough in this group. I needed to keep a low profile.

Mentally redecorating other people’s houses is a bad habit I have. I think it’s an occupational hazard that goes with writing the Crystal Chandelier Blog.