Who are we?

Right now we are in the middle of hyping our I Made It! Market event, so I thought that this would be a good opportunity to introduce ourselves instead of an in-depth craft tutorial. So, let's just start:

"My name is Nichole Moraila and I own a small jewelry company in Los Angeles called Mucha Muchacha. I make fused glass art jewelry.

I'm often asked why I prefer glass as a medium for jewelry. In the late 90's I was an antiques dealer and was introduced to many kinds of pottery and glass.

One of my favorite things was vintage fused glass by the Higgins Glass Company. I was taken by the rich, colorful, geometric fused glass panels called “Rondelays”. The colors reminded me of the glass bottles I had seen in Mexico as a little girl. That's when I fell in love with glass.

I already loved jewelry and had been making my own pieces for a while. Nearly ten years later I decided to marry my two loves. I think they work together beautifully for a clean, fun and modern aesthetic.

I create each piece by cutting up panels of colorful glass, designing a pattern, assembling the piece and then firing it in a kiln. The combination of time and temperature fuses the glass into something special.


Nichole Moraila
Mucha Muchacha
www.MuchaMuchacha.etsy.com"


"Hi, everyone, I'm Morgan and I run the webcomic "I wish I had a penguin friend." I moved to Los Angeles 3 years ago to work in the film industry and about 1 year ago I decided that maybe it wasn't my goal anymore. My day job is still in video production, but I love coming home and drawing.

My comics are mostly autobiographical and mostly embarrassing (for me at least). What I love about cartoons is that the art doesn't have to be realistic or "perfect." It can be loose and wild or clean and precise, but each one can make you feel something different.

I started the Los Angeles Craft Mafia with Nichole because we were serious about selling our crafts. Already I've found that some of my intentions have changed. I still want to put on our own craft shows and I really enjoy letting you all know about upcoming events, but it is also fun to meet new people! Los Angeles is such a big and scary place and it can be hard to meet people with similar interests. And so far, with just one meeting, we have met a bunch of great friends.

So, always feel free to say hi even if you don't have your own craft business or products. Send us an email, stop by for a meeting, show up late, show up early, it's all good ☺

Morgan
www.iwishihadapenguinfriend.com
http://www.momoma.etsy.com"