From - LoHud.com

Harrison inventor helps women organize their jewelry
By MARY SHUSTACK
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: March 15, 2007)

Alison Albanese could never quite put her finger on her rings. Or her earrings and necklaces, for that matter.

So the Harrison woman invented a solution to her accessory crisis.

"I was always unorganized with my jewelry," Albanese says. "And I'm a very organized person. I tried everything from jewelry boxes to pouches to you name it."

The next step - logical to Albanese, ambitious for most others - was to design something that finally brought a sense of order.

"I did a prototype out of cardboard and coat hangers," she says.

And that makeshift model, based on an idea that came to her in April of 2005, has evolved into the Longstem Organizers.

Albanese began selling it in December through Longstem Productions, which is based in Cold Spring.

True, this all might seem an improbable move for a woman who's a private investigator by training, but Albanese says she's been able to straddle the worlds of style and surveillance.

"I was always creative, and I knew I was going to do something toward that," Albanese says.

So while she continues to work with her ex-husband (Greg Albanese, a retired deputy chief investigator with the Westchester County District Attorney's Office), she clearly has grand designs as president of her own company.

After all, the Longstem Jewelry Organizer, a steel-based unit, is just the first of many Longstem Organizers Albanese hopes to introduce.

But first, she needs to get the $69.99 organizer out to women who will happily hang it from their closet door or mount it on any wall.

When she does, she says, it will end those searches for that matching earring, stop those necklaces from tangling into balls and provide a resting place for jewelry normally tossed aside after a late night out.

The organizer's design is simple and functional, a study in white made fanciful by a decorative scroll along its top.

And while the example Albanese shows off is filled with dozens of necklaces, bracelets and rings, she declines to assign any capacity numbers.

"You could do as little or as much as you want," she says.

No matter, it helps end one of a jewelry lover's most pressing issues, one Albanese long battled.

"You don't know what you have," she says. "I was very frustrated by that."

But no more.

And that's the beauty of the piece, says Tim Miller. Though Miller prefers the term "worker bee," he's a vice president of Longstem Productions. (The side venture complements his own "day job" of running a Cold Spring firm that provides land planning and environmental services).

Miller says the organizer will be a hit, since it allows a woman to fully embrace her collection.

"It's like the songs on your iPod," he says. "You might have 2,000 of them but you only listen to 20 of them."

With the organizer, all is visible - and all can be added to the rotation.

Miller adds that the organizer is designed for costume jewelry, allowing that most people would prefer to keep their fine jewelry in its original box or a small jewelry box.

Right now, Albanese is selling the Longstem Jewelry Organizer through the company's own Web site, while also testing the waters through eBay. Auctions have found the organizer heading out to customers across North America, with Albanese receiving inquiries from as far away as Belgium.

Until the organizer goes into mass production - a deal to produce them in Asia instead of Massachusetts is being worked on - the product will remain a domestic item. Details on all the products have been filed with the United States patent office and are patent-pending.

"Ideally, it would be great to get it into a major marketer," Miller says, mentioning a chain like Bed Bath & Beyond.

For now, Albanese and Miller keep busy with new ideas and plans. (They share that a fitness product is in the works, but that's a story for another day).

Right now, the plan is to get the first organizer selling briskly and then add two new jewelry organizers to the line.

They're already well on the way, with designs Albanese has once again nurtured from idea to sample model.

One of the new products would be a height-adjustable corner unit ideal for jewelry lovers living in tight spaces. The other's a funky star that would also be produced in shapes ranging from hearts to shamrocks.

"The star is intended to be marketed to teens who have less jewelry," Miller says.

But no matter the age, those with jewelry need to keep it organized, Albanese reminds.

That she's provided the way to do that just makes it all the sweeter.

"It has just added so much to my life," Albanese says. "I finally feel organized."

With her orderly collection of shoes and bags at long last joined by her jewelry, Albanese can not only see what she has - but what she doesn't.

"Now I can buy more."

Copyright © 2006 The Journal News, a Gannett Co . Inc. newspaper serving Westchester, Rockland and
Putnam Counties in New York.