exceptional eyewear

How OLA labs turn out specialty and elegant eyewear that combines craftsmanship with technology

By Alex Yoho, ABOM

Beautiful, high-performance eyewear is hot, and to meet the demand, labs are reaching back to the jewelry era of optical and combining the elegant with tints and treatments that do more than just look good. We surveyed a number of labs and found that they are reaching for the stars to produce exciting eyewear. This month's panel includes input and consultation from the following experts: Richard Brune, Randy Bise, Wendy Webster, Mike Posthumus, Steve York, Bob Price, Bill Roesner, Dan Senatra, and Bill Wainer, all from Minneapolis-based Walman Optical; Craig Giles from Soderberg Optical in St. Paul, Minn.; Anthony Fulco from 21st Century Optics in New York; Jerry Haigh, J&J Optical in Paradise, Calif.; Jason Mansuy of Vision Craft in Walled Lake, Mich.; John Granby, Deschutes Optical, Bend, Ore./Boise, Idaho; and Essilor's Steve Nussbaumer, Alain Mathieu, and Bruce Scott.

Faceting and custom creations combines artistry and technology. Images by Jason Mansuy and Bill Bishop of Vision Craft

Q What have you done to gear up for out-of-the-ordinary lenses?

Brune: In the performance area, we have fine-tuned our abilities to control prescribed prism in a PAL at the distance reference point rather than the prism reference point. This accommodates individuals suffering from head trauma, stroke, and MS.

Giles: We have advanced our software and hardware within finishing systems to accommodate wraps and unique bevel configurations.

Fulco: With the market moving toward more premium eyewear, it's important as a laboratory to brand products and services in such a way that ECPs recognize and trust your capabilities. The type of work an ECP sends to a lab is directly related to how he or she values that lab's abilities.

Haigh: We offer Rx lenses for all Rxable high-wrap fashion, sport frames, and three-piece mountings.

Mansuy: We are about to launch an entire collection of custom options such as facets, edge paints, painted grooves, engravings, feather etchings, custom shapes, jewels, recesses, custom magnetic clips, and more. [It combines] a host of tools and talented artisans.

Granby: We have built an excellent wrap-eyewear-to-Rx business. We use a special edger we outfitted for wraps. Real opticians build these from scratch.

Q How do you address the challenges of customized lenses?

Giles: We are blessed with some real lens artisans who can take outside-the-box jobs and apply their abilities to create great results.

A small percentage of jobs are not possible to complete as ordered, and we have found that careful customer education will overcome objections.

Fulco: Proprietary software enables us to not only trace specific shapes, but also to alter size and shape specific to the request.

York: Many of the direct-sell manufacturers have special labs to provide Rx lenses for their frames. After all the research these companies have done, we shouldn't try to reinvent the wheel, so I use their charts for a guideline.

Granby: We usually hand make a pattern and then save it in a special archive file. We adjust drill holes with a drill editor and fax a copy of the shape and setting to the office for approval.

Q What's the most interesting shape your lab has created?

Giles: A "double facet" that was created to make the best of a highly decentered and high minus 56mm eye ordered in a drill-mount chassis. The attention to angle integrity and thickness reduction produced a product that was a huge hit.

Price: The hardest shapes to do have an "inward" curve.

Granby: We have made wild shapes for movie stars or entertainers like Elton John, Ringo Starr, Elvis, and more. The wildest was a custom frame made as a bicycle—the wheels were the lenses and the seat was the bridge. We did the shape with spokes tinted into the wheels and then a black paint on the edge for the tires.

Nussbaumer: We are proud when we initially think that a particular job cannot be done, but after much thought and work are able to process the order. In many of these cases, hand craftsmanship comes into play because even the latest edging technologies cannot fully process the requested order.

Q Do custom shapes create more spoilage? How do you control it?

Bise: Yes, because we are changing the shape that was designed by the manufacturer. We run trial lenses before running the original order and this cuts back on spoilage.

Fulco: Spoilage is a consideration, but that's the very reason we have to charge a premium.

Nussbaumer: If one is careful and patient, custom shapes do not necessarily create more spoilage.

Q How do you process faceted lenses and jeweled eyewear?

Haigh: We process facets by hand using a faceting stone and polisher. Skill and artistry are important.

Mansuy: We do facets by any means necessary. It is best to let the edger handle it, if possible, so the right and left will come out identical (as will any subsequent remake). We also have experienced opticians who started their careers doing facets all day long back in the early 1980s.

Fulco: Countersinking lenses is relatively easy with today's technology. That allows us to create random jewel patterns placed in the countersunk holes using adhesives.

Roesner: Keeping a sizeable inventory of jewels on hand to match enclosed jewels or fulfilling requests for new jewels is usually not a big issue in our facility. They are difficult and time-consuming to work with, as marking, set drilling, bonding, and alignments are all tedious and talent-robbing.

Q What variety of specialized tinting does your lab offer?

Haigh: We offer custom tints to match any sample an account may submit as well as mirror coatings and anti-reflective coating combinations.

Mansuy: We have accommodated every request for unusual fashion tints. We did an interesting pair with a blue gradient tint from top to bottom and an upside-down silver gradient mirror from bottom to top.

York: Our performance lenses include computer tints with full UV and AR protection, shooter lenses, and blue blocker tints for low light.

Granby: For motorcyclists, pilots, fishing guides, and drivers, combinations like special tints over Polaroid or Transitions are fantastic.

Q What types of artists are required to meet most of your custom eyewear work?

Giles: A centralized "specials" department is our clearinghouse for jewelry-type orders where we engrave, edge treat, and custom color lenses.

Bise: [It requires] a person who is very detailed, has pride in workmanship, enjoys hand work, stays focused, and is steady with his or her hands. We also have engraving machines with templates for different designs, and a good assortment of paint, which is important for this work.

Haigh: We custom edge coat/paint most polarized lenses to complement the frame and tint combination.

Mansuy: Our artists have a keen eye for color and certainly a steady hand. Depending on difficulty, it can be an all-day process to do one pair of lenses with the right combination of treatments.

Nussbaumer: In most cases, this involves one or two highly skilled individuals spending as much as three or four hours on a single job.

Q What troubleshooting skills are required for producing customized eyewear?

Fulco: It still comes down to people. Editing what can be sent through your system and recognizing what work will need special attention still falls in the hands of technicians who interpret what is necessary. Equipment cannot take the place of skilled personnel.

Haigh: Staff training and education at the account and laboratory are critical. Everyone involved needs to understand what is possible and where problems may occur.

Mansuy: We have a great mix of artsy and techie people to solve most problems. The hardest part is trying to decipher what the customer wants and getting them to imagine the final product. We often create a proof—a complete mock-up set of planos—to show the patient.

Roesner: Troubleshooting or heading off problems with special custom eyewear starts with good communications between the ECPs and everyone in the lab—from the front to the back! It is a team effort.

Granby: When staff runs into a challenge, this usually includes Aniseikonic magnification and vertex problems. I, being the old man with 35 years of experience, get the call.

Nussbaumer: Staff experience and the training given is the key to successfully producing customized eyewear with low breakage. EB

OLA labs are stepping up to address the demand for beautiful, high-performance eyewear. To find an OLA lab near you, check out www.ola-labs.org.