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Company continues inaugural plate parade
by
Heather B. Hayes
Virginia Business
February 2005
Cheryl
Lyon is hardly a Republican insider, but for the second
time in four years, her company, LDA Creations, is making
the official commemorative plates for the inauguration
of President Bush. The plates, which feature a traditional
inauguration design showing the Capitol rotunda, an
eagle, spears, 50 stars and the last names of the president
and vice president, are made in-house at the company’s
Silver Lake Mill Workshops in Dayton in the Shenandoah
Valley. This time around, Lyon was able to persuade
event planners to add a second color of 24 karat gold
to the artwork, which “we felt really helped create
a more elegant piece,” she says.
Lyon, who has a manufacturing management background,
started LDA Creations in the mid-1980s, after a friend
asked her to make a complicated glass Christmas ornament.
Since then, the company has grown steadily, specializing
in the custom design and production of high-end ceramics,
glassware and Christmas ornaments, most of which retail
between $10 and $100. Last year, the company produced
more than 150,000 pieces and took in nearly $1 million
in revenue while working for such major customers as
Colonial Williamsburg, Mount Vernon, Monticello, Montpelier
and The Greenbrier.
Lyon expects that the business will grow another 15
percent this year. It already is outgrowing its main
production offices in a picturesque pre-Civil War mill
on Silver Lake. “We offer a very high quality
product at a reasonable price,” Lyon stated. “I
think our clients feel like they’re getting a
very good value.”
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