Ballet Gift Shop, now in its 3rd year, is run by a small design firm, CAMIC designs L.L.C., and is situated at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Englewood, Colorado. With the goal of helping ballet companies raise money for their performances, Ballet Gift Shop is dedicated to providing gift items at low prices so that ballet companies can truly profit. Michael and Cheryl Caston are the owners, designers, and artists behind BalletGiftShop.com. Cheryl has many years of experience in ballet and has performed in a variety of performances. Her close knowledge of ballet as an art form has given the ornament designs at Ballet Gift Shop a true authenticity of form, line, and costume. Michael and Cheryl obtained Master’s Degrees in Product Design at one of the top universities in the nation for design. It was while in their last year of the program that Cheryl’s mother, Maxine, came to them with a request. Maxine was the volunteer fundraising coordinator for the ballet company that Cheryl used to dance with. She asked Cheryl and Michael to design ornaments that were true to the nature and form of ballet and that could be manufactured here in the U.S.A. and resold for fundraising. Many of the “Made in China” ornaments already on the market were low quality and falling very short of actually capturing the true art of Ballet. They were likely designed by someone who had never participated in ballet performances, maybe never even attended a performance, and thus, not familiar with appropriate posture and poses that are most important to ballet technique. With a desire to keep business in America, Michael and Cheryl took on the challenge and began to test different materials and processes for ornament manufacturing. Their first thought was making a mold out of silicon for casting resin ornaments, but decided it was too time consuming and thus, the end product would cost too much for ballet companies to use for fundraising. When they happened upon a very large pile of oak and poplar veneer, they realized that they could glue the veneers together to make their very own homemade plywood that could be laser etched. They quickly learned how to engineer plywood and operate a laser engraver and were able to translate their drawings of dancers into new laser etched ornaments. The use of the laser engraver allows them to offer free customization on every ornament that they manufacture. Their initial designs were well received by the ballet community as very detailed and accurate depictions of ballet performances. What started as ornament designs for 36 main characters from the Nutcracker Ballet (see our Retired Ornaments), has grown to include over 100 different character designs from 5 ballet performances and 12 different product lines. Ballet Gift Shop has expanded to include product designs for more dance styles including: ballet, Jazz, Tap, Irish Step, and Flamenco. Ballet Gift Shop has helped raise thousands of dollars for ballet performances. With the success of Ballet Gift Shop, Michael and Cheryl started another company, Critter Gift Shop, with the goal of helping non-profit animal rescues raise money for the care and placement of lost or abandoned pets. Critter Gift Shop creates ornaments and other products intended for resale by animal rescue groups. Paul Coenen - Printmaker Paul Coenen is a Printmaker who lives and works in St. Louis, MO. Paul's prints have been shown nationally and internationally in juried printmaking exhibitions, as well as group and solo shows. Earlier this year, Paul was fortunate to have been an artist in residence at the Ragdale in Lake Forest, IL for one month and currently is an artist in residence at The Luminary Center for the Arts in Saint Louis. Paul has also been a resident at The Vermont Studio Center and The Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, both in 2007. Paul's artwork is focused primarily in printmaking and drawing, primarily relief prints these days. His specialties also include Etching & Intaglio Printmaking and Lithography. Paul studied printmaking and art education at East Carolina University (class of 2003, BFA) and yet even more printmaking at the University of Wisconsin Madison (class of 2007, MFA).  Recent artwork (non-Nutcracker related) can be seen at his informal blog, www(dot)paulcoenenprints(dot)com.  You can also view Paul's CV here. Dottie Dillard - Photographer At a young age, Dottie Dillard studied ballet with Nina Stragonova and Lisan Kay at the Ballet Arts Studio in Carnegie Hall. She later was awarded a full scholarship with American Ballet Theatre where she studied with Dimitri Romanoff, Alexandra Danilova and other noted instructors. From ages 15 to 17, while continuing her classes at ABT, she was a member of the Ballet Company of Radio City Music Hall. She also was a principal dancer with the Denver Company of Ballet Theatre. Dottie is a self-taught photographer – originally with an emphasis on nature photography. She photographed her first ballet performance in 1997 and subsequently embraced dance photography with a passion that reflects her knowledge and love of that art form. Specializing in performance photography, she has photographed some of the greatest dancers in the world including several gold medal winners. One of these dancers, Lucia Lacarra, was presented the prestigious Nijinsky Award in 2002 for the best female dancer in the world at the Monaco Dance Forum. Dottie has been a company photographer with Ballet Internationale which was under the artistic direction of Eldar Aliev who was principal dancer for thirteen years with the world renowned Kirov Ballet. The assistant artistic director of Ballet Internationale was Irina Kolpakova – former Prima Ballerina Assoluta of the Kirov Ballet and partner of Mikhail Baryshnikov and Rudolf Nureyev. Prior to joining Ballet Internationale, Ms. Kolpakova served as ballet mistress at American Ballet Theatre. Other ballet companies that Dottie has photographed include San Francisco Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, Metropolitan Classical Ballet, and Washington Ballet. Her images have appeared in Pointe Magazine and she is a member of ASMP. She has won numerous awards in photography competitions – including several 1st place awards. She was one of 157 winners out of over 50,000 international entries in the American Photo Magazine contest 2004.