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.