Ch-ch-ch-Changes...

[GGT]

Bitter, another thing. Ask your interior designer (no offense to decorators, but hope you choose a designer and not decorator) about the color of your ceiling. I've noticed black ceilings a lot lately, when shops renovate and want a more intimate feeling. Especially if there are high ceilings and exposed ductwork. It works really well, but it makes the lighting even more important, so they use very little overhead light....more like layered lighting. A couple of tiny halogen lamps streaming down, side uplights from sconces, indirect low amp lighting from lamps with shades, casting a warm glow. Lighting specialists are probably very valuable for a business like yours. I've been at places that used halogen cabinet lamps that made their glass and counters incredibly hot to touch....and were too bright to show off their jewelry. Or their backdrops were white.



More ramblings for Bitter. I was thinking about your many talents. Blowing glass, creating kites, that great car cake you made for your dad!.....on top of your incredible talents for jewelry design and craftsmanship. It'd be sweet if your designer could capture all that you are, somehow, and translate that to the public. Possibly an awning outside, reminiscent of your kites or the Sydney opera house. Fabric awnings are like a new way to get peoples' attention, over all the things that compete for visuals, somehow more appealing than neon signs, because they can be large or colorful without being ugly or intrusive.

Probably couldn't mix in your cake-making talents very well, but some up-scale places do offer petite fours or tiny chocolates with gourmet coffees (for their valuable repeat or high-paying customers). Made me think of those tiny ceramic boxes with inlaid jewels, because they're almost pretty enough to eat. Designer cakes and treats have taken on a jewel-like quality lately. Like Faberge Easter eggs.

Maybe down the road you could create a special box for your jewelry.....something more than just the fake velvet box with springed hinges. Dunno, maybe that sounds corny. But I know plenty of women save the box their special jewelry came in. It'd be nice if they weren't hidden in closets or drawers, but miniature works of art themselves, something unique to just YOU and your talents. No reason only Tiffany should capitalize on their distinct box color, right?

MORE ramblings....

Come to think of it, simply the color of a box holding jewelry is important. My mom used to like a jeweler in FL called Fishel and Dowdy. All their stuff came in pink fabric boxes. No idea if they were anything more than a free-standing type of Zales, but when she gave us gifts that came in that pink fabric box, we'd get excited before we even opened it. Ditto for a jeweler in Indpls called Sipes. Their boxes were a velvety grey. Something special, denoted by the box and its color. Anyone and everyone can do basic black.

NYT has a lot of side ads for Tiffany's, and we know them just by seeing their pale robins-egg turquoise blue. Unique color that's gone in and out of "fashion" over the years, but it's become their signature color.