Nardone and Clark 'Sparkle' at New York show
By Susan Pyle Dickenson -- Home Accents Today, 9/1/2006
"Another bright idea" is how Lisa Nardone and Meredith Clark, owners of Rosie NYC and Chandi, describe Sparkle, a new joint venture combining a few of their ideas into one illuminating collection.
The new line debuted last month at the New York International Gift Show, where the spotlight was on Sparkle's lines, including Raindrops, a unique design of faceted raindrop crystals set in a cylindrical metal framework in gold, silver, pink, aqua or black.
The business partners were already familiar with each other's work when they met years ago as exhibitors at a show in Atlanta, and were friends for about four years before deciding to launch Sparkle. "We'd been wanting to do something together, a little different, and were both inspired by a similar retro design at around the same time," Nardone said. More importantly, with an average retail price of $350, the Sparkle collection meets the designers' objective to offer elegant lighting at lower price points without compromising product quality.
"In all, we're introducing about 85 styles in six lines, plus glass lamp bases ($115 to $130 retail) and beaded lamp shades ($32 retail)," Nardone said. Retail prices for the chandeliers range from $225 for the small Raindrops, to $900 for its three-tiered version. Within that range are Rock Candy, Icing and Licorice chandeliers, which offer a choice of colored, white or black glass beading on two frame sizes; Umbrella with beaded glass bulb covers in five colors; and Lotus Flower in gold or silver.
In addition to presenting the Sparkle line alongside Chandi and Rosie NYC in New York, the two women are creating the Kwan Yin Fund to which 5% of every Sparkle sale will be donated. Kwan Yin is the Buddhist deity embodying compassion and healing and she is often depicted carrying the pearls of illumination. The funds will be donated to women's groups and organizations around the world to nurture and support creative expression.
Sparkle takes both of the designers into new territory with its simpler designs and an assembly team in India, but the venture has enabled Nardone and Clark to consider doing more, on a bigger scale. "Owning your own business is a lot of work. Two makes it a bit easier," said Nardone, who is hoping the partnership will lead to more commercial installations such as Rosie NYC's nine oversized "Pinwheel" chandeliers (with candy striped Murano glass pinwheels) currently in production for a candy store in the western U.S.
The two share a great love for glass and color, and an admitted growing respect for each other's work, but the similarities end there. "We work very differently," Clark said, "but our styles are complementary." She uses a team of Los Angeles-based artisans and all of Nardone's designs are assembled in Italy. While Clark is more European-traditional with a twist, Nardone gives the Victorian-romantic aesthetic a good stretch with unexpected color combinations of frame, glass and beads.
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