We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Liz Ross a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Liz , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.

For most of my life I have been self employed or had my own business. Seduced several times by the corporate world, it was flattering to be sought after. I held design director positions at three major high end home and tabletop retailers. Once “on board,” they typically stymied all the creativity for which they had initially hired me. After each experience I would joke about not being a “team” player when the teams were so  dysfunctional. It was not a good fit. I started several businesses over the years- a line of very cool gloves called RUKA, another of dessert and cocktail plates named The Monkey and The Peddler, and then my current business: CoolSnowGlobes. We are the only company that focuses solely on snow globes, and I like to quickly add “not the tacky kind.” We have grown into the foremost makers of hand-painted quality snow globes in the world.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

The business idea came about one year when I suffered from Carpal Tunnel in both wrists. I was living in SF and a bit homesick for the beauty of East Coast Autumn colors. I had never collected nor was I particularly interested in snow globes but had the thought of making one w autumn leaves falling instead of snow. That led to designing a line of 12 globes, all based on capturing beautiful moments in nature. I licensed them to a large giftware company. When the license came up for renewal I reclaimed it, and began creating custom globes for companies such as Sundance and ORVIS. Several years later we moved to Vermont and we met someone who suggested we create a line. Having done trade shows and kept inventory years before, it was not something I wanted to do again. But my husband and I joined forces and we created a collection. It was extremely well received as no one had ever seen anything like what we were doing. For years there were no Santas, and not even any Christmas. Just beautiful peaceful moments in time. I loved coming up with the ideas. Then with barely and marketing, high profile companies began contacting us to create custom globes for them. Ballet companies, museums, corporations- all thanks to word of mouth and then of course Google. We have a unique way of enhancing our clients’ concepts using many ideas and techniques we have developed over the years. We also designed our iconic square base that sets off the interior scenes like a pedastle in a museum. We make art contained in glass globes, and have an archive of over 160 designs.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

The hardest thing for me has always been having my work copied. When it first happened in 5th grade my mother said it was the highest form of flattery. But when it happens from competitors, or on a massive scale by someone in China, it hurts. This person stole our identity, name, package design, logo and our globe designs. He actually patented our designs in China. We spent years and way too much money on lawyers chasing him down. A pretty futile endeavor when dealing with China. We also had some of our own factories knocking us off. It’s not an ethical world out there- and there is little one can do about it. Getting over the anger has been hard but moving forward and continuing to create is what I do.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I love what I do. And I am fortunate to be able to say I have never done anything I didn’t want to do. And thought the corporate world was not for me, I was fortunate for having had alot of on the job training – around the world which was amazing. Previously I worked in costuming and make up for opera and ballet companies, was a photo stylist for books and advertising, designed banquets, stationery, dinnerware, clothing and now snow globes. I always say “I never knew that I wanted to do, so I always just did whatever I felt like doing.” Fortunately it has worked out very well. No regrets!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.coolsnowglobes.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coolsnowglobes
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CoolSnowGlobes
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/CoolSnowGlobes
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiZBjZZ9OYnR5bxXauNXHiQ/videos

Image Credits
All images David Westby for CoolSnowGlobes