COURTESY OF SARAH STANLEY
Some Ornaments to Remember include, from left, Bottom Flower, Hawaii, and Jams Night.
Sarah Stanley creates
unique island-inspired
glass ornaments
As a former full-time educator, Sarah Stanley admits she enjoyed the "intellectual challenge" of starting a new business enterprise from the ground floor. Now the Kauai resident is spending more time at her mainland office that mails out limited-edition Christmas ornaments to customers wanting to receive a little aloha in a variety of glass-blown shapes.
The president and founder of Ornaments to Remember started her business on her dining room table in Koloa in 1999. The business has grown steadily over four years, and in addition to catering to a burgeoning online and mail-order clientele, she has her wares in 75 stores across Hawaii.
Her colorful glass, artisan-crafted wares include hefty ornaments inspired by the shapes and designs of such familiar island symbols as the muumuu, aloha shirt, surf jams, rubber slippers and swaying hula dancers. Other souvenir designs Stanley has come up with have taken the whimsical form of bikini sets, kimonos, kanji symbols and even sushi, one of her year-round bestsellers. They're priced at $16 to $72 each.
DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
An aloha shirt ornament.
She's even made custom designs for the local Macy's stores this holiday season, one of them being an island Santa orb, showing St. Nick preparing his reindeer for the night ahead, and his sleepy, pau hana time on the beach afterward.
The array and quality of ornaments reflect Stanley's commitment to the business, even though she and her husband remain involved in the education business.
"I have a doctorate in education from UCLA, and became a teacher and principal in the public school system in Los Angeles," she said by phone from her office in Wilsonville, Ore., which she describes as "a little suburb south of Portland."
After 1988 she spent seven years coordinating evaluation and test-development projects at a private educational research and development company. Stanley became its president in '95, helping to create and produce a series of nationally syndicated 90-second inserts for local TV stations called "Education Plus," created to help parents guide their children to succeed in school and in life.
She established the Learning Community two years earlier, a nonprofit foundation to help schools and families work together. "We know the powerful difference parent involvement makes in student learning," she said.
Once Ornaments to Remember gets into the black, she aims to move all the proceeds from her ornament sales into the Learning Community.
COURTESY OF SARAH STANLEY
Sarah Stanley moved to Oregon to be closer to customers.
STANLEY WAS exposed to the business potential of Christmas ornaments when she went to Europe to work with Department of Defense schools.
"I always liked Christmas ornaments -- I remember being a teacher on a bread-and-water budget and buying them at half-price -- and the best are made in Europe."
She ended up being a frequent visitor to one particular ornament factory in the little town of Dorfles Esbakh, Germany. "I would go there with the intention of learning the business. They had never met anyone from Hawaii who was at all interested in the craft of glass ornament making. I had some molds done of some aloha-inspired items, and it kind of took off from there."
So Ornaments to Remember was born. Stanley admits to having to "learn a whole new vocabulary," but ideas and inspirations for variations of her original designs kept coming.
"I originally had a hula girl dressed in white, which I then adapted to the current island girl line. And with the aloha shirt, I would make different ones with gecko, dolphin and turtle designs. I like to come up with new ideas."
Along with the flow of designs came an equal flow of inventory -- so much so that they moved from Kauai to Oregon "because the business was overtaking my house and garage," she said. "Besides, most of our new clients were on the mainland, and we were shipping the ornaments from Europe to Honolulu, barging them to Kauai and then shipping them back out to our customers."
HER ORNAMENTS are made in small factories in Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic from small, hollow bulbs of glass that are heated over a open flame until red hot. The molten glass is then put into molds, and the glass blower blows to conform the glass into the shape of the molds.
After the ornaments have cooled down, they're silvered using a combination of silver nitrate, ammonia, distilled water, saltpeter and sugar and allowed to rest overnight. The next day, the ornaments are dipped in a base coat of lacquer and then hand-painted and gift-boxed.
Even though Stanley is still a Kauai resident, she said that "over the past year, I've spent a lot of time here in Oregon, to the point that it was half and half during 2002.
"Back when friends in Kauai were helping me pack big orders, one girl asked me, 'Did you read a book on how to start this kind of business?' and I told her, 'No, but I wish I had one!'
"It's like being a teacher, thinking it through as you go along.
"People often ask me where I get my ideas. Just living life inspires me, and I try to do what's fun for me and fun for someone who receives or gives one of my ornaments as a gift."
And she's still thinking up new designs. "I've already started on my 2005 line."
Ornaments to Remember are available on Oahu at A Gift for All Seasons in Kaimuki, Livingston Galleries in Kaaawa, the Kaneohe Marine Corps Exchange, NEXCEN at Pearl Harbor, the Outrigger Trading Co. in Haleiwa and all Hilo Hattie, Macy's, Nohea Gallery and Pat's Island Delights locations. Go to ornaments2remember.com for more information, or call toll-free 800-330-3382.
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Bid on decorated Celebitrees
Head over to the Ward Warehouse Kakaako and Kewalo rooms where the 49th annual Festival of Trees is taking place.
The annual three-day fund-raiser for the Queen's Medical Center Auxiliary features thousands of handmade craft items for sale, plus more than 40 Christmas trees decorated by local celebrities such as fashion designer Anne Namba, University of Hawaii football coach June Jones, photographer Kim Taylor Reece and businesses such as Dave & Buster's, Hard Rock Cafe and the Honolul Star-Bulletin/MidWeek.
FESTIVAL OF TREES
Anne Namba's design is among the Celebitrees that will be auctioned during the 49th Festival of Trees.
Those who attend may bid on the trees during a silent auction that closes at 2 p.m. Sunday.
Among the trees to be auctioned are a Maile Jewelry Tree adorned with 50 sterling silver Hawaiian jewelry items including pendants, earrings and bracelets; and a CompUSA tree that comes with a computer keyboard, electric calculator, digital camera and more. Both are valued at $400.
Festival hours are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. today and tomorrow, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. A $1 donation is suggested for admission. Children 12 and under are admitted free. Funds raised will support the purchase of new neuroscience unit equipment. Call 547-4397.
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