Meet Alyssa Kyle from Alyssa's Cupcake Confections...
My name is Alyssa Kyle. I am 23 years old, and am the owner of "Alyssa's Cupcake Confections." I've been in business for five years. For the most part I am self taught. I am home-based but sell my cupcakes at various farmers markets, art shows, and events at Gale's Garden Center in Westlake. I also cater special orders, showers, weddings etc... I teach cupcake baking & decorating classes as well. I love the creativity of inventing cupcake flavor combinations, baking them, and decorating them in unique ways. My mom is my partner and was instrumental in helping me begin Alyssa's Cupcake Confections five years ago. She handles the business end, created my website and is my decorating consultant.
In addition to baking, I love to write, read, scrapbook, hike, garden and cook. I also enoy yoga and acting in local theaters. I am a volunteer
for The Rocky River Nature Center.
My creativity I inherited it from my mother. She's the most creative person I know. When I was growing up, she ran a kid's craft camp, sold her crafts at art shows, and wrote a craft article for a local newspaper, and always came up with creative projects when she was a Girl Scout Leader. She and I have been baking since I was little, especially around the holidays.
How I got into my hobby... I've always loved baking desserts since I was a little girl. My mom and I would bake and decorate tons of sugar cookie designs for parties at school. As I got older, my passion for sweets grew. I took cake decorating and baking classes, and developed a particular interest in cupcakes. I started bringing them to the theater I used to act in, as well as family parties. They were always a huge hit!
How I started my business... I decided, on a whim, to try selling them one day at Crocker Park Farmer's Market. I sold out: 100 cupcakes in 2 hours. Everyone asked for my website, brochures, and business cards. Before I knew it, my business was born.
My creative process... Well, it begins with coming up with flavors. I am inspired by other desserts and think about how I could incorporate them into cupcakes. Then we try out and tweak many recipes before choosing the perfect one. Then my mom and I sketch out designs for how they should look. Our cupcakes are visually appealing and unique. We think they should look as good as they taste!
We have over 150 flavors including cakes, frostings, fillings, glazes and adornments. I have favorites from each category. If I had to choose one, I really love Pina Colada, S'mores, Sticky Toffee Pudding, Orange Honey Harvest and Egg Nog. I also love custom decorating for theme parties and special events. I try at each event to donate a portion of my profits to various charities.
My goal is that I plan to open up a store front someday.
The message behind my work is to have fun with your choices, think outside the box and be creative. Anyone who has tried my cupcakes can tell how much I love doing this and I take pride in their enjoyment of my flavors and designs. My favorite quote is "To Enjoy the Flavor of Life Take Big Bites" Robert Heinlien.
At my best, I am a clown made out of rubber. I like to do my best to like, hug the world around me with my psychic powers and hopefully, it's effective. Sometimes it feels like no matter what I do I'm dancing and it's so friggin cool. At my worst, I become a cranky little kid that doesn't like anything or anybody and just wants to go home no matter how much fun everyone esle is having. Usually that happens when I'm starved for sleep or food.
I believe I get my creativity from my dreams.. And self analysis. And symbolic juxtaposition. And emotional outbursts. And conspiracy theories.
My creative process.. I try to keep myself on my toes. It's actually alot like trying to set myself up to accidentally stumble into the proper zone. The first step is definetely to respect yourself and the medium, and then there's a process of interaction between artist and medium and it's based on mutual respect but it isn't rule-bound. For me, it's usually like feeling my way around until I feel like I've established contact or communication if that makes sense. Then I kind of "read into" what's going on in the painting and try to bring it out so other people can see what I see, and then in that process other stuff starts coming out and eventually the space is full.
Other times I come with a theme in mind, like I did in "Girl Consoles Clown" or "Child's View from Cradle." I came to those paintings with ideas I'd written down in notebooks earlier, and more of a plan, which was weird for me at first because I'm so used to just pouring random energy into things, but really the framework doesn't squelch the noise, it just puts it in a context. Still, it was a total challenge for me because I don't mimic reality well, so I had to fake it and erase it over and over and over again until something comes to life and usually I think it's just being nice because I'm trying so hard.
When it comes to favorite items, I can't really have a favorite, that's like asking a dad to say which is his favorite kid, but you will see in this blog, photos of some of the coolest stuff I have ever made - these represent a great deal of time, energy and inspiration to me.
The first piece is called "Knowledge of Evil." I had a plan when i came to the canvass to make it like a black version of Child's View From Cradle, so instead of parents, there would be members of the Church, State, and Corporate Business community reaching into the baby's cradle, but instead the red blobs that were going to represent these characters, and began to take the form of eyes, DNA, the body of a bull, And this salivating bearded girl with a lazy eye that appeared to be hypnotized by something far away over my right shoulder and maybe she was holding a knife, also there was the head of a snake, all these skeletons and egyptian masks, a little green owl, and this waterfall who was a girl crying and they all seemed to be babbling gibberish with vearious emotional undertones and I felt like I couldn't do anything wrong it was so much fun.
The second one is called "Girl Consoles Clown" and that was about the time I got my bike stolen outside of an anarchist conference of all things, and it really was after a long period of time when I was trying to be proactive politically and within my community, and really trying to believe in the idea that even if I didn't have very much money I could just go out into the world and put good energy into things and people would feel it and it would come back to me.
I'd locked the thing up-- I really had, and I was just so upset I was a total wreck! I had a very erratic inflow of cash and now I'd lost my only way of getting around and I was so pissed off on the bus ride home. I could have screamed and cried and late at night on the way into the transit center, it really was like a little girl was reaching up to me with a handkerchief going "don't cry, people can be just awful" and I really wanted to capture that.
At first it was just blue and pink energy because, like I said I don't know how to represent things on purpose very well, but THEN after a couple of bursts I really started to see the clown and the girl and I sat with that thing in my lap many evenings and it was fun, but she was so small I couldn't put a face on her no matter how hard I tried.
My goal is to just keep growing as an artist. I really don't have very high financial aspirations, but I'd like to sell enough of my artwork so that I can take enough time off of work to really focus on art. Some time over the next couple years, look for "An Official Contribution to Western History," a musical score based on logical feedback loops i discovered on a park bench after receiving a rejection letter.
The message behind my work, "Watch out for those imaginary locked doors"
Meet Nancy Abrahamson from Jazzy Jewelry...
When I was growing up, I was never very artistic. I still draw only stick figures and elephants. So when I discovered that I had talent making jewelry, I was so excited! I enjoy sharing this experience with others by having them over to my home for what I term "Snack & Playtime." I provide a home-cooked treat and guide women through making earrings, bracelets or necklaces. I especially love when someone comes to my home saying, "I can't do this. I'm not talented." They go home wearing something they made and we both feel good about it.
When my daughter was a junior in high school she went to Costa Rica with AFS as a foreign exchange student. At that time, I began selling jewelry as a way to help pay for her year abroad. I've been making and selling jewelry for about 4 years.
When my daughter was a junior in high school she went to Costa Rica with AFS as a foreign exchange student. At that time, I began selling jewelry as a way to help pay for her year abroad. I've been making and selling jewelry for about 4 years.
Since then, I've run a jewelry-making craft time for my church ladies' retreat for the past two years. They dubbed my craft session "Jazzy Jewelry" and the name has just stuck.
I believe I get my creativity from God. He hard-wired me.
How I got into my craft.. I went to a craft show and bought some jewelry. After examining it, I wondered if I could do something similar. So I experimented a bit. I've never taken a class; I'm a self-taught artist. I'd like to take classes sometime to learn more intricate techniques.
My creative process... I see certain beads and think, "I wonder how this would look if I mixed it with..."
My most favorite item that I've crafted is a crazy-lace agate heart pendant necklace which I recently sold. Check out the picture above!
My passion is to share some beauty with others and share the joy of creating. I get excited when I see others enjoy the creative process, and I learn from them as well. I think I get as much from sharing as I give. I've gotten some good ideas for design from women that I've had over to my home.
My message behind my work is that beauty is readily available. I try to keep my prices reasonable so that more people can own something I've created. I'm also into guiding women through the process of making their own jewelry.
Check out these featured vendors at the 2012 West Side Summer Avant-Garde Art & Craft Show. This eclectic show will feature over 170 of the most talented artisans and crafters. A portion of the show's proceeds will be donated to the Cleveland Animal Protective League, for animal rescue.
