Stand Out in a Crowd: Being Unique like Cool Designer Cufflinks

Don’t you love cool little cufflinks? I think they’re totally sexy and for something so small, they sure can make a big statement. Huge compliments to avid cufflink collectors.  I really like accessories that provide a little insight into an individual’s personality. 

Cufflinks do that. 

So, I’ve been trying my hand at making cufflinks for almost a year and a half. In fact, I have cufflink prototypes (hundreds of pairs) strewn about the studio and stashed in drawers.  Part of the fun for my friends to come into the studio is trying to get a sneak peek at the multiple experiments I have going on at any given time…

In today’s world of manufacturing and overseas sourcing, it’s rare that a company will manufacturer and sell their own products.  It’s cost prohibitive and for the most part, I don’t know if people even care anymore about where something is made.

But I do.

I find satisfaction in doing both manufacturing and distribution. I can have control over quality and I get the opportunity to connect directly to customers.  I think that’s the best of both worlds.  But maybe that’s just me.

I enjoy taking ideas and turning them into something tangible.  I like developing the prototypes, working with so many materials, and figuring out how to perfect a process.  Art to me is more than painting or illustrating…it’s about creating something out of nothing.

But guess what?

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Hotel Des Arts in San Francisco is a MUST See

If I had started a blog prior to completing the Sugarluxe Room (504) for the Hotel Des Arts…I can only imagine what I might have written during the process.  It was exhilarating, grueling, exhausting, freezing. And toward the end of the project, it was sort of a blur. 

On the second to last day, I do remember calling Patty Williams, my lifesaver holding down the fort (studio) back home. I was teary-eyed, tired and sore. Patty is not only incredibly smart and sweet, she happens to have a Masters Degree in Social Work, which comes in handy when you’re feeling blue.  How lucky am I that this is the second time I’d hired Patty.  First in my former life at a corporation and then later into my own company.  Patty is amazing and I love her.

And even when I was 1,000 miles away, she was and is always there for me. It was one of the coldest winters in San Francisco. More importantly, I received a phone call from my folks in the middle of the project to tell me that my dear 20 year old cousin, Elliot Arnold, passed away in his sleep - no one knew why.  I was beyond devastated and during the last days of painting, I was in a daze from the unbelievable news. I could barely hold my paintbrush…my hand would shake and my fingers were numb. It was not an easy time to be filled with creative energy. But like everything I cherish in life, I realized that the things which require the most work, can end up being the most rewarding. 

The Hotel Des Arts is like that for me.

And the Sugarluxe Room is dedicated to Elliot.  So, obviously, it’s important to me on many levels.

To some, it might just seem like a good place to show off your art if given the great opportunity.  It is.  The hotel features the work of some of the most prominent, cutting-edge artists alive today.   

To others, it may seem that the art is disjointed and doesn’t look upscale enough to compete with the W Hotel down the street.  It can’t.  It won’t.  Thank God!

Which is why I love this place so much.

 

You can connect to the heart (emphasis on the art) and soul that is core to this boutique hotel.  It is alive with ideas, passion and purpose created BY people FOR people who appreciate the independent spirit that fills every inch of this place.  It is not ultra-fancy, but there is nothing else like it.  And that’s why every time I head back to San Francisco, this is EXACTLY where I want to stay.

The recent NEW ART ‘08 SHOW presented by START SOMA afforded me an excellent opportunity (excuse) to go back (as I do several times a year) but this particular show fell on the date of my 5 year wedding anniversary…and because we hadn’t had a vacation since our honeymoon (thanks to our never ending work schedules)…my wonderful guy and I contemplated getting away to a place where we could get some much needed R&R.

As we considered all of our options, the zillions of places we could go, we still chose to visit all of our friends, artists and the cool people at the Hotel Des Arts.  I guess we could’ve gone to SFO and stayed somewhere else in town…maybe a romantic little B&B.  But we didn’t want to.  Why?  Read more