A Taste Of Italy ...

A Week In Italy Pays Dividends For Patina Staff And Reps...

If you're a sales rep or a designer who has ordered a custom piece from Patina in the last year, then most likely you've had the pleasure of dealing with Tina Marion, Patina's "Majordomo" or "Mayor of the Palace" as she is sometimes referred to by CEO Marylu Stevens.

Part of Tina's job is to smooth the work flow between designers, sales reps and Patina's artists in Italy, so in order to help improve that process Tina took on the daunting task of spending a week in Ronchi Dei Legionari, home of Patina Italia, visiting with the artists and staff.

During her trip, Tina had the opportunity to closely examine the gesso process, aging and distressing and spent time with the carvers who hand carve the pulls. "At one time there were over 1000 wood carvers in Italy who had the skills to carve the intricate designs we use at Patina, " Tina says, "Now, there are only 20 and we employ 4 of them."

A big part of the trip was getting to meet the staff at Patina Italia, people Tina works with every day via the web and email but had never met in person. "I finally got a chance to meet Maria Grazia, who works in a similar position in our Italian offices, we had a chance to work on our communication process - finding ways to improve and speed up the process. It was a great opportunity for both of us."

"We pride ourselves on getting the details right at Patina," says Tina, "But now I have a much better sense of exactly what details are most important to our artists and what they need to know at each step of the process."

And Tina came back with some tips for designers and reps when it comes to creating custom work. "The more information we can get from you the better. Don't be afraid to pile on the details but also don't restrict the artist. Each piece is a work of art in its own right. Allow the artists to make their contribution."

While in Italy, Tina also had a chance to see some interesting new pieces in development. "I've always liked the way Patina has been able to take traditional pieces and adapt them to a modern lifestyle, like we did with our Plasma Secretary. Along those same lines I had the opportunity to see a prototype of a new Patina piece that I think will be very exciting."

That's all we can say about that for now but we can say that Tina had a great trip and in between all those meetings and factory tours and conferences she did manage to get in side trips to Venice and Trieste and sample a good deal of the local cuisine and wine.

So, the next time you're talking to Tina about a custom order or a special detail on a Patina piece ask her about her trip. We're sure she'll be happy to reminisce.

A Patina Classic!