Featured Artist Alixandra of The Alchemists Vessel

Crayons, play-doh, painting, knitting, anything to keep her hands moving; this is how Alixandra describes herself from the very beginning. Born and raised in sunny San Francisco,California; Alixandra spent her childhood surrounded by the wonderful art of the area whether is was going to the Japanese Tea Garden or the California Academy of Sciences or DeYoung Museum surrounded by form and color. This love of art has followed her throughout her life.

Alixandra is currently a self supporting artist but has been a volunteer Docent/Animal Handler or the San Francisco Zoo and managed large crews for a landscaping company. When she is not busy working, Alixandra loves to read and spend time in the great outdoors of her new home base of Boise,Idaho. She takes these beautiful nature scenes and allows them to feed her passion for life.

While this talented lady still dabbles in many different mediums, her heart has found a home with jewelry, which ironically, she does not wear herself! She leaves herself open when it comes to raw materials and works with everything from PMC (Precious Metal Clay) to natural gemstones as well as traditional materials such as wire and beads. She also does the most amazingly beautiful chainmaille I have ever had the honor of seeing. She is self taught, seeing a process and teaching herself through research and trail and error to make it for herself. Alixandra is always learning and has even recently enrolled in a Jewelry Design and Repair Tech class in order to upgrade some of her natural skills and learn some new materials and equipment.

Alixandra says that it is the sparkle of metal in the sun or romantic candlelight as well as how different elements combine to create something wonderful that keeps her creativity flowing. She loves to take the ordinary and create something extraordinary that will make the wearer feel special. This drive to create soon meant that her home was filled to rim with her creations. In her own words, “Racks of earrings, hangers bowing beneath the weight of necklaces and bracelets, boxes and organizers full of beads and strung cluttered the living area.” Her, up until then, patient housemate finally announced that some of it had to go and The Alchemist Vessel was born! Since them, Alixandra has had the honor of working with boutiques as well as creating custom work for birthdays and weddings as well as selling her creations in person at the Treasure Valley Flea Market where she gets to enjoy the social atmosphere and seeing customer’s reaction to her work first hand. She is also currently sharing her talents with clients by teaching classes at her local Jo-Ann Fabric store.

After some trial and error, Alixandra is willing to share some information to those looking to become self supporting artists themselves. The biggest thing to remember…it is a lot of HARD WORK! She understands that too many fall into the trap of believing it will be all fun and games and once you put your creations out there, the orders will just roll in…ummmmm…..no. The first thing you must do is research and figure out what is going to make you different from what is already out there, your time and cost (including time for creating, photographing, editing, promoting, shipping…and you better schedule some sleep time!) as well as if you are willing to let go of your hard worked piece. Alixandra readily admits to putting in 12-14 hour days regularly and as soon as you slow down so will your sales.

This is not to say it can’t be done! The Alchemists Vessel is living proof that a woman with a passion and a talent and a drive can create a very successful business! Alixandra is easy to find all over the web starting with HandmadeArtists and Etsy as well as her own Website. You can like her on Face Book, YouTube, Dailymotion and LinkedIn and follow her adventures through her Blog! Once you see her work, I have no doubt that you will quickly fall in love with her clean designs and interesting combinations that can only come from an artists’ mind.