Eye on Small business: Crystal balls draw on Chinese folk art form

When Geri and John Cross gazed into their crystal ball, they saw a vision of a future business venture. The couple are sole proprietors of The Painted Ball Co., which designs and markets an adaptation of a Chinese folk art form.

Started in 2001, the small business sells 4-pound crystal balls that are hollowed out through a single hole and hand-painted on the inside to depict a select commemorative design. The current, line features balls showing the World Trade Center and Penn State University in State College.

With approval from Penn State to market the balls, the couple commissioned several artisans in Tianjin, China, to paint the initial prototypes.

Their investment in the folk art was inspired when the two lived in China three years ago, when John was sent to work there as a quality assurance engineer for Applied Mechanical of Austin, Texas.

"We saw the balls and were astounded by their beauty," said Geri Cross.

The couple saw a ball that had been commissioned to commemorate a project for the Motorola Co. They decided to create one that would appeal to Penn State fans.

The Penn State Pride Ball features a campus scene and is capped on top with the Penn State seal. However, the Joe Pa Ball, with a portrait of Joe Paterno, has captured the attention of Lancaster resident Tony Corbin.

"I was struck by the ball's uniqueness," Corbin said.

Corbin owns the first six Joe Pa balls made, each of which comes with a special documentation. The company will make a limited number of Joe Pa balls to equal the number of wins by the coach when he retires. Paterno has a record of nearly 330 wins.

Each of the Joe Pa balls cost $110. Eight percent of the sales are paid to Penn State as a royalty fee. An additional 8 percent will be sent to a charity of Joe Paterno's choice.

The couple sends about half the cost of the ball back to China, where their manager, Li Longqing, oversees the work and payment of the artists.

Also, a portion of that money is given to the Tianjin International Committee for Chinese Orphans. After these distributions, the company makes a profit of approximately 25 percent on each ball sold.

The Pride ball and World Trade Center ball retail for $55, and a Penn State Graduates' Celebration Ball is $75.

Fifty percent of the company's sales are through the business's Web site. Other sales come through word-of-mouth or at local craft shows.

In the future, the Crosses would like to produce a ball for Florida State University, the alma mater of John Cross.

But the company first must obtain a standard collegiate license, as opposed to a local license; the latter permits them to market items for up to six different schools within their home state. A standard license permits a company to seek collegiate approval anywhere in the United States.

The cost of an expanded standard license is no more than an additional $150 over the $50 local fee. But according to Amy Olson, coordinator for local restricted licensing at the Collegiate Company, the competition to capture the approval of a popular university can be tough. Currently, the majority of collegiate licenses - about 1,200 - are local, while only about 800 are standard.