Patrons in the Making
The interior design industry depends on our relationships with each other and with our clients. These relationships strengthen into friendships over time and through mutually survived crises. Recently I have been with long-established friends in Memphis, where Niermann Weeks started; in Boston where Niermann Weeks is repped at M-Geough; and in my own Maryland factory with tours from two groups of budding interior design professionals.
The students form the future of our industry, so we have always been open to giving tours of our factory, offices, and showrooms. Professor Nancy Evans of The George Washington University brought a busload of her students to our factory. I had never been so honored as to have a bus deliver my guests, and it was a real boost to my ego! Nancy is standing in the shade, second to the right in this photo, surrounded by her graduate and undergraduate students.
Nancy’s student Rose Kaspersen caught me explaining how we install our antiqued mirror onto our Mirabeau Table. All the photos of the GW tour are courtesy of Rose.
Rose watched with fascination as raw products morphed from their ugly duckling, raw stage into a finished product. This Iron and Crystal Chandelier provides the most dramatic example with its different component materials – steel both forged and formed, copper, plastic-coated electrical wiring, and molded resins.
Random looking collections of stuff hold the different items that we include in another fixture.
Our artists transform this stuff with multi-layered finishes, referring to our master samples and controls.
Here Alarise and Heather attach the beads for the fixtures they’re working on.
Finally the product is ready for our client’s home or office, protected in our warehouse until shipping day. This giant Rinaldi Chandelier hangs from the ceiling until it’s crated.
GW’s Professor Nancy King regularly brings her students out to our factory, and one of them, Joley King now teaches students of her own at the nearby Catonsville Community College. Joley stands here on the left with her class in our warehouse.
Heather shows them how she attaches the bead strings on our Danieli Chandelier.
Dave demonstrates cutting antiqued mirror so that it fits exactly into its place onto finished furniture.
This completed Monaco Chandelier for DC designer Wayne Breeden probably best shows off his skill.
I am really proud of all our designs, production work and artisans, so it is always my pleasure to show them off. Doing so to budding interior designers allows me to begin Niermann Weeks’ relationship with them. Their first clients may not select our products, but future ones will, and these young people now know us and understand our work. We are all fortunate in this encounter.
Thanks for reading my blog, and be well!
Eleanor
Websites for more information include:
www.ccbcmd.edu/ceed/classes/le_hobbies.html#interiordec
www.ewaynebreeden.com
www.intd.gwu.edu
