From Panama to Tucson

After about six months of starting Rainforest Design®, I decided that I really didn't know much about cameos, and so when going to Atlanta in late August, I bought a book in Barnes & Noble entitled "Cameos, Old & New, 3rd edition" by Anna Miller.

It accompanied me on the plane as I headed north to Washington, DC, to help my son move into his college dorm. I'm reading the book and get to the chapter about "Keeping the Art Alive in the United States", and it is about Helen Serras-Herman, master carver, who by coincidence, lived in the DC area. When I got to my destination, I googled her name, found the web page and emailed her to ask if she would be interested in seeing cameos carved by the Wounaan Indians of Panama. To my surprise Helen answered back right away. She didn't really have time to see me, but said that I could send photos. Jumped into the rental car, went out to Best Buy and bought a Sony digital camera suitable for closeup shots, and when I got back to Panama, prepared my first portfolio of pictures and sent them out.

Helen's return email made my heart soar like an eagle. She LOVED the cameos. Here I had this world famous master carver telling me: "These cameos are absolutely beautiful. Fine detail, well finished, carved in stunningly high relief...the subject themes are beautiful, too. They are very unique in the market."

Turns out at the time she opened my message, she was with a friend, a GIA expert in phenomenal gemstones, who also thought our cameos were fascinating. They had zoomed into the photos on the computer, trying to find flaws with the workmanship and just couldn't find any. In subsequent conversations, Helen insisted that I had to show the cameos in Tucson, AZ at the next possible opportunity the following January/February.

Now, I have been to trade shows around the world for other merchandise as a buyer for a chain of department stores in Panama, but never on the selling side of the table. The more I looked into the Tucson Show Guides, the more confused I got. So many shows! Started checking hotel rates on the Internet and they were astronomical at two star hotels. Didn't look good for me going to Tucson, but Helen was persistent and wanted to meet and see our cameos in person. She talked with her GIA expert friend, who was going to be showing in Tucson, and she offered to put a few cameos in her showcase at the Arizona Mineral and Fossil Show. I HAD to go now. And would you believe it, when I checked again with my travel agent about a hotel, she found space at a Sheraton 20 minutes from downtown at $39.95 a night, including buffet breakfast? So I booked a room for four days and went to Tucson to meet Helen and her good friend, Elaine Rohrbach of Gem Fare.

That was January 2005, and I have been meeting with Elaine, our NE distributor, and Helen there annually ever since. Come visit Gem Fare at the Hotel Tucson City Center Inn Suites, if you are in town in 2011!

When people ask, "How did you get to Tucson?" I respond simply, " I bought a book in Atlanta." And it happened, just like that.

Beverly Hills Missed Out

After Tucson 2005, I traveled to Los Angeles and started looking for jewelry stores that would be able to sell one of a kind designer cameos to the rich and famous. The criteria: 1) reputable, high class establishment, 2) attentive sales staff, 3) custom design work available on site and 4) currently selling one of a kind jewelry pieces. I really wanted to find a designer willing to use our unset cameos in their designs to make spectacular jewelry that would make it to the Red Carpet. In a few hours I found two possibles I really liked in Beverly Hills. I thought, this is perfect.

Walked into the first store, looked at a few showcases of beautiful things, and the sales manager came over with a smile (criteria 1, 2, & 4 - check). I asked if the buyer was on the premises, he said yes, but that she was in a meeting and could he help me. I told him about our shell cameos from Panama, inspired by the flora and fauna of the tropical rainforest, that they were very unusual and that I was sure their store had important customers who would want them. I was even in the position of being able to give them exclusivity for the Los Angeles area and they would be the first store in the entire USA to offer them. I pulled out three or four unset cameos and passed them gently to him one at a time. He thought the carving was incredible, and commented that there was talk about the company creating their own line of jewelry with in-house designers (criteria 3 - check). I smiled and said, you can design the new line around these! I thought, "this is going to be easy, all criteria met and the sales manager likes them = guaranteed sales". But the buyer was still busy and never came out of her office and I had a plane to catch. So he gave me her name so that I could write to her and send pictures, and gave me permission to use his name as a reference. Went home to Panama to prepare portfolio #2, this time with traditional photos and letter on our new logo stationery, confident of a positive response.

I wrote the letter, sent followup emails. Weeks passed and wrote another letter (registered mail), more emails. Nothing. Asked the sales manager to please forward my email so that I would be sure the buyer would read it. He did. Still nothing, not one response. More time passed, and I called to make an appointment for the next time I was going to be in LA. No response. Called again. No response. Got to LA and called again. There was never a response. Not once, not even to say I'm busy, not interested, etc. I stopped calling and writing, decided to give it a rest, at least for the time being, rethink the approach.

All my life I have looked at obstacles as something one had to strive to overcome and learn from the experience in the process. The name "cameo" itself is enough of a continuing obstacle to deal with, as people already have a preconceived notion or mental image of a cameo...typically thinking of that "pretty woman" in profile or other classical design that has been carved for centuries in Italy and Germany. Only saying the word "cameo" illicited mostly negative reactions ("Cameos don't sell") without even being given the chance to say, "but these are different!" Some have even suggested that we call our cameos something else. I tell them, it is the same shell that Italian carvers use, the Queen's Helmet shell, we use the same hand tools...it IS a cameo!

Once you have seen Rainforest Design® cameos, the imprint of this new imagery is so strong, yet so fresh, the meaning of the word cameo is changed forever. It is easy to be passionate about what we do. We feel we have literally redefined cameo jewelry, are helping impoverished rainforest people, and in the process have done something of historical significance. See for yourself: http://www.rainforestdesign.com and tell us what you think.

While I was getting the cold shoulder in Beverly Hills, Elaine Rohrbach of Gem Fare was getting positive response on the East Coast and had made several appointments for us in New York City. For the first time, I saw this obstacle (BH) as a sign to take a different path, an easier path. Beverly Hills missed out. It was on to the Big Apple.

From Toilet Paper Wrapping

A man* walks into my office peddling some merchandise, and pulls out of his jean pocket a small shell cameo wrapped in toilet paper. The design was a little frog on a leaf and the workmanship was amazing. I knew I had never seen anything like it before anywhere, and I have done my fair share of traveling and visits to art galleries and museums. "Who made it?", I asked. The answer, a Wounaan Indian friend. It was not for sale. Since I wasn't interested in what he was selling, that meeting was over. The door was left open for the gentleman to return in case there was something else to offer. ( I always try to leave the door open if I can.)

Six months later. The man returns with some silver jewelry that he had cast from a mold based on the cameo I had seen previously. It was awful, too clumsy, too heavy, impossible to wear. We started talking about the frog cameo I had seen (now destroyed) and he told me the story of how he used to live on the Islands and exported shells to Italy for the cameo trade there. Knowing that the Wounaan Indians from the Darien Rainforest Region of Panama had tradition of carving in cocobolo wood and tagua nuts, he thought they should also be able to make cameos. So he set out to find a carver. It took several months of trial and error, lots of broken shells, before he could claim success. He showed me a couple of pictures of cameos carved by his Wounaan friend that had been set in gold and they were impressive. Gorgeous is a better word to use for them. That evening I showed the pictures at dinner to two guests who are professional art restorers, and they both placed an order on the spot. Voilá, a cameo business was born, just like that.

*name reserved by request