South Tampa Business to Feature at RNC

Two Tampa sisters will provide their exclusive handcrafted rhinestone GOP pins for the Republican National Convention with the authority of the party to create the prominent trademark Republican elephants in their fashionable and sparkling ‘bling’.

The sibling duo of Laura Lang and Dinah Swickey formed their company, Blingers of Tampa, three years ago after designing pins for the Gasparilla parade and their Krewe, Ye Loyal Krewe of Grace O'Malley. With the idea to market their decorative pins to delegates and Republican supporters attending the convention, they sought out and earned approved vendor status from the 2012 Host Committee Small Business Network.

"We've been working on this project for almost 2 years since they announced that the RNC was coming to our home town," Laura Lang said. "When we pursued the Republican National Committee to grant us approval to handcraft their trademark elephants into bling, we were thrilled how quickly they agreed. We're excited to offer them at this year's convention and we're looking forward to more windows of opportunity within many political environments."

The idea stemmed from their work with the krewe and has continued thanks to the enthusiastic feedback they get from their peers in the krewe who love their work.

"Once we joined the krewe life, we couldn't get over how everyone was so excited with the rhinestone bling," Lang said. "Krewe members wanted to 'trade' bling with others. During parade season the hot items aren't necessarily the trendy items, nut a krewe logo, a sassy acronym or anything different is well worth trading with or for. Being 'artsy fartsy' ourselves, we're always willing to create or handcraf something. Dinah figured making the rhinestone pins couldn't be all that difficult and on her own she located the crystal chain and started attempting to create it. After several variations, she contacted the man provides quite a bit of the local bling among the krewe folks. He invited us to his home base in Tallahassee and was so generous with his mentoring and taught us how to fine tune the creation."

The sisters are South Tampa natives and the daughters of Stu Lang, once a wealthy businessman in the swimming pool business and a talented craftsman who taught his kids how to work with their hands.

Now, the daughters are making waves of their own having already pinned Congressman Scott Rigell from Virginia Beach, Chief of Tampa's Police Department Jane Castor and Anita Perry, the wife of former presidential candidate Rick Perry. They hope that the convention will help them make some noise nationally.

"We have both wanted to have a career that we were well suited for and looked forward to doing every day," Lang said. "We'd love to design and handcraft bling for anyone."

For more information, visit www.blingersofTampa.com or call (813) 429-9746.