Reminiscing About Our First Mascot, Byron

Byron and Me

Dunitz & Company has had several mascots since we first started our business. Byron was our first. My sweet Vizla - Weimaraner Mix was the light of my life for over 15 years. Can you believe it? Byron was not a rescue. My mom purchased him for me for $100.00 from a "backyard breeder" who was a friend of a friend. The year was 1995. We knew the dog parents. It was before I was aware of dog overpopulation and overcrowded shelters having to regularly euthanize them. What I do remember is my mom's voice when I thought I might not be able to care for a dog, "JUST PICK ONE OUT!" She was right. Byron brought me so much joy.

Cutest Puppy EVER!

Byron was only 7-1/2 weeks when I brought him home. And he was a little terror. I caught this photo of him (my favorite puppy pic) when he jumped up into this planter. Not long after that he shredded the entire plant to smithereens. My neighbors teased that his name must be "Bad Dog, NO!"  He was so adventurous and super high energy. Most dog people said he was lucky to have me because most people would not have put up with his activity needs. We spent a lot of time at dog parks, hiking and running stairs at the Hollywood Bowl. He was the best kisser. One kiss meant a face wash because that dog had the largest tongue ever.

But, alas, this is a post attached to my fair trade jewelry business. For that reason, I'm going to share a bunch of photos of him wearing beaded jewelry.  It had been a good year and I decided to hire an amazing photographer, Amy Cantrell to take an amazing collection of photos I enlarged and shared in my trade show booths for a few years. (I remember when I stopped showing them, my customers would sheepishly as if he was OK and still living.) For the purpose of this blog, I actually took snapshots of the posters. That means they're not quite as crisp as if they were 1st generation.  Just the same, I know you'll love seeing them. I sure have enjoyed reminiscing. This pic with the glasses is one of the funniest. And I'm surprised we ever "got it" because he kept tossing them off his face.

 

The 'blue necklace' photo showed off Byron's absolute beauty and those enviable ears the best. I liked the photo so much, I 'pissed away' $$ on pins I gave out to my customers. It was good for a few laughs.

Here are the other photos I hung up in the trade show booth. Byron in "rainbow", Byron in "turquoise", Byron in Swarovski crystal necklaces. My boy looked so stunning in all of our jewelry designs.

 

 

A HUGE kiss for Nancy

Amy sneaked in this one on photo shoot day!

 

 

 

 

The Color Answer Book

In the early 2000's, I collaborated with artisans in South India to bring beautiful beaded dog collars to doting dog parents in the USA. Sadly, the project didn't last. However, Byron the model is featured in perpetuity in "The Color Answer Book" by renowned color specialist, Leatrice Eiseman. Eiseman is the Executive Director of the Pantone Color Institute. She saw this photo in our New York trade show booth and asked if she could use in her then upcoming book. The book was released in 2003. The photograph was taken by me.

Byron life ended before the Facebook and Instagram craze. Toward the end of his years, Facebook was catching on. Digital cameras were the norm. And print film was a thing of the past. We actually mailed out paper holiday cards with Byron's image several times. With Photoshop artistry we offered up some fun ones. And later on, we posted a few to Facebook when social media was gaining traction and we didn't want to purchase sooooo many stamps.  How can we not share some of those fun images?

 

A Big Kiss for UPS man

My parting thought is to speak to Byron's loving disposition. That dog wouldn't have hurt a flea. (Although sometimes the fleas would bug him.) He's the only dog, so I was told, that our vet would allow near his infant son. Byron wanted to play with every dog or human he met. And if allowed, he had a kiss for everyone. At Dunitz & Company, that happened daily with our UPS driver. -ND

More Portrait Drawings & Fair Trade Jewelry

It dawned on me it's been over a year since I share some of my drawings and how I also use them for Dunitz & Company social. Here are some of my drawings from 2023 with Dunitz fair trade jewelry added. Aah, the joys of Photoshop. Perhaps if you follow us on Instagram or Facebook, you've seen some of them. As I went through my files to share these images here, I am reminded how much I've been drawing. It really feeds my soul. In no particular order...

OMG - Even I'm amazed at the volume of drawing I've created. And I've actually edited for the purpose of this blog post.

I like posting my drawings with jewelry for Dunitz & Company social. But, just today, I asked myself what's next? I'm thinking my next series of drawing will focus on people head to toe. Not necessarily nudes, which I think is what typically comes to mind. Perhaps I'll draw women in fashionable outfits. Then I can suggest what Dunitz designs they should be paired with. Stay tuned. Will you? -ND

DIY - Updating An Old Coat Rack

If you read my last blog post, I wrote a tribute to my friend and long time Dunitz & Company office landlord. LQ Jones was our landlord for 24 years. He lived downstairs. And our offices were at street level. We brought our dog or dogs to work every day all that time. That translates into a lot of walks in the neighborhood. Every day when we returned to our office, we'd get a view into LQ's residence. And if you check out the red arrow, this is where we saw his coat stand which was next to his desk. What always amused me the most was hanging from this coat stand was a pink and white cowboy hat. That always put a smile on my face. I'm sure this hat was never worn by him! And I never asked him the origin of it. (I'm sorry I never did.)

 

 

LQ (McQueen to us) passed in 2022. It took a while for his kids to get the building sold. And when they entered escrow, I was given notice to vacate. What wasn't acceptable for charitable donation, was being discarded, both by us and LQ's family.  Charitable organizations will not accept many types of furniture including desks or any pieces that are NOT in perfect condition. What did I do? I asked if I could have that coat stand. (Yes, of course, it's yours!)

Obviously I had never examined this coat rack up close. If I had, I probably wouldn't have asked for it. When it was delivered to me by LQ's son, I discovered a old piece that was very charming, but also in very bad shape. The stand was discolored from fading and peeling, unstable and had some minor water damage. After assessing the piece, I knew there was no way I could restore it to its original mahogany finish. (I discovered it was originally mahogany when I completely took it apart. The areas never exposed to sunlight revealed this.) Those round circles, I thought those were metal. Nope. They are hard plastic and when I rec'd the piece they were flaking and spreading strange dust everywhere. 

A bit of hip shooting and I got to work. I intuitively knew the coat rack needed to be completely disassembled. It needed a lot of sanding. My gut told me after prep work, spray paint would be my best and easiest option for restoring this old piece to a new glory. I already owned steel wool and sandpaper. And a trip to Home Depot resulted in purchases of dark green satin paint and antique bronze paint.

The restoration work took place in my driveway. I spread out old sheets and cardboard. Did I take a photo of everything as I was doing the work? No. Of course not. But my neighbors all stopped to ask what I was doing. "That's a big project." "That's a nice color." All those comments definitely correct. Here are more before pics.

I was careful when I took the coat rack apart and saved all the old screws. They're bronze and aged and look fantastic on the finished piece. It's a good thing I took before pics because reassembling it was a giant puzzle. And there were two types of screws meant for different parts of the coat rack.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I completed the project over two days. And I'm delighted with how it turned out. My home decor utilizes a lot of earth tones, greens, tans, browns. Here are a couple of detail pics and then one of the completed piece. After seeing these you might find an old rack for yourself on OfferUp or Facebook Marketplace. Why not?

As a tribute to LQ, I've hung an Australian cowboy hat I purchased on a vacation on my now refreshed coat rack. Did I mention that the stand no longer wobbles?

And perchance if you can see through my dining room window, you'll see this coat rack (with cowboy hat) proudly standing. I love it because now I think of my friend every day when I pass by it.-ND