On September 24th my co-founder of the Over My Shoulder Foundation, the fabulous Grammy Award winning singer Patti Austin flew into Boston. Our task was to create an award to be unveiled at an elegant evening that Design New England is planning for November 3, 2010 to celebrate the concept of mentoring. Together with legendary stone master Ivo Cubi and Cumar Inc.’s brilliant engineering team, we had three days to come up with the Mentors in Design Award (MIDDIES). With Ivo leaving that day for Italy to search for the perfect stone for this high-profile award, the pressure was on.
During Patti’s visit, she saw that mentoring is something that happens every minute of every day at Cumar. As one of the most respected and influential stone craftsmen in the world, Ivo is known for his ability to find the most unusual stones anywhere and make glamorous, brilliant objects out of them. What I admire most about Cumar is that everyone has the opportunity to follow their dreams with Ivo as a natural mentor. As a 7th generation stone master, Ivo wants to see future generations of his family pursue the business with his same passion and a spirit that sets the mood to mentor a top-performing team. Ivo teaches us something new daily about the stone we work with. The beauty of mentoring is that it knows no age.
As a team, we at Cumar are over flowing with talent and imagination but it takes a veteran talent, a person well-versed and who has first-hand experience to take all of our energy and channel it. With open arms, Ivo has embraced my dream to not only to flourish in my career but to allow me to bring my Over My Shoulder project into Cumar. Stay tuned – the dazzling award is currently in production and the Cumar team is pooling their expertise to create a mesmerizing icon that will become a treasured symbol of accomplishment in a mentor’s life. – Dawn Carroll
Cumar – The Best Stone in the World
