Alysia Murray
Laguna Beach, CA. USA
Hello … I’m sort of a returning member, from a few years ago. A
native Southern Californian [usa], and previously employed by
[husband and pre-marriage] as a graphic designer - I’ve taken the
past 3 yrs off becoming a mom to my 2.5 YO wonderful little boy whom
I adore. After a rough financial period and selling some newly
purchased equipment to make ends meet, we have moved into the house
in which I grew up, and there is a nice little workshop in the
garage area that my father used for woodworking and fishing tools
etc, that I’m setting up to do some small-scale silver work
[whatever that means - I’ve seen some pretty incredible stuff come
out of small places!]. I’ve been making jewelry as a hobby using
beads & wire since I was in high school [I’ll be 40 next month -
yikes!], and now, possibly in my “mid-life” stage, I’ve decided to
start a business - doing something I really love to do, instead of
something I can do, but I hate doing! So, primarily I’m working
with the beads and wire right now, and I’ve added PMC to the mix,
making small charms & links etc. I rather spontaneously created a
mini “line” for little girls, and got the guts up to approach 2
children’s boutiques here in town, and now they each have 4 of them
[2 which they bought straightaway and 2 on consignment]. As for
working with the PMC, I love it - but it is only getting me thinking
about what is it like to work with wax, and the potential
cost-effectiveness of having certain little charms ‘n’ things sent
out to have cast in sterling. I’ve never worked with wax though, I
like the clay form of the PMC, so there will be a learning curve [as
with everything else].
Anywho ~ I just got my tanks and torch setup - have not even fired
it up yet … I need to set up my “sink” [the 2 liter water jug that
will drain into a bucket], so I can set up my pickle pot which will
be complete with the “shut-off timer” as seen in the current issue
of LJ - by pulling the ‘on’ pin out of a regular timer I got at the
hardware store], so I can actually solder. In the meantime I’ve been
studying all the safety info, so I can sleep at night.
Looking forward to being a part of the list - I hope I don’t have
TOO many really stupid questions - the archives have been a
wonderful resource so far.
~Alysia Murray
Southern CA, USA ~ near the beach