Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 1, 1993 TAG: 9312010247
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG LESMERISES STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Salem business partners Will Leaman and Jon West made the fiber-optic sphere of good tidings a reality this year.
"We stumbled onto this one," West said. "We're one of the few companies with the experience to deal with fiber optics."
The former Virginia Tech lab partners started their business, Lightly Expressed, in California in April. They escaped what little competition there was in the Napa Valley and moved back home in October, settling in a former plumbing supply shop in Salem.
Lightly Expressed concentrates on custom work, something bigger companies cannot do.
A museum in Pennsylvania is interested in its work, because fiber-optic lights never burn out and produce no heat or ultraviolet rays that can harm exhibits.
Leaman and West have done some eye-catching signs, using fiber optics as an alternative to neon.
And the lights can be useful for rimming walkways or docks, or for swimming pools, because the electricity can be placed away from the water. There is no power in the fiber-optic strands; the light comes from an illuminator box.
Leaman snagged the job for the Washington tree while giving a speech in Milwaukee. Renee Green, who works for General Electric and is in charge of designing the White House Christmas tree, heard him speak and asked if he would be interested in the job.
"I really didn't feel the expertise [of other companies] was at the level Jon and Will were at," Green said. "I knew they could take my concept and make it work."
That concept came from a statue in Detroit. Leaman and West were given photos of the statue and simple sketches of Green's idea and told to get to work.
"We did the whole design - of what to make it of, feasibility, all of that," West said.
"You apply things from other fields," he said. "There's still a lot of room to stumble on to things."
"What we didn't know, we taught ourselves," Leaman said, "because we had no choice."
The result was a ball 18 inches in diameter with 19 spires, ranging from 8 to 40 inches long, protruding from its center. Two rings wrap the ball.
This was the first use of fiber optics on the tree and the first move away from the traditional Christmas star.
"They wanted something different and nondenominational," Leaman said.
The ball will be used again, illuminated with different colors, Green said.
Leaman and West also made two smaller ornaments for GE headquarters in Ohio and Connecticut. And they made a mock ornament for the ceremony performed Tuesday when Hillary Rodham Clinton placed the ornament on the tree.
They did all this in 23 days, just the two of them, and personally delivered the ornaments to Washington on Nov. 15.
"We said we were going to change the name of the company to Miracles 'R' Us," West said.
They will have front-row seats at the lighting ceremony Dec. 9, when the real ornament will be lit. And they will get their name out in an industry where competitors are few.
And they get to have fun.
"It's neat stuff," West said, "stuff you like to play with."
by CNB