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Local carpenter launches jewelry box line |
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Friday, 26 June 2009 |
Alice Suszynski
transitions from cabinetmaking into jewelry box design
By Catherine Billey
Mammoth Times Staff Writer
 Submitted photos. Ed and Alice Suszynski, pictured here with their dog Bella in Yosemite, relocated from San Diego to the Eastern Sierra in October 2004.
A San Diego transplant with 35 years of cabinetmaking experience, Suszynski moved to June Lake with her husband Ed in October 2004. She opened up a traditional custom woodworking business in Bridgeport, taking commissions from throughout Mono County.
But business has slowed down recently.
“And I’m slowing down,” she added. “I’m 55 and I’m really not interested in schlepping 100-pound cabinets around anymore.”
Because she has done a lot of design work throughout her career, the idea of scaling down into a jewelry box format was appealing to her.
“I thought I could probably do something that’s not out there yet. And I don’t think there’s any like these out there. Each one has a special motif engraved into it,” she described.
“It’s all done in the shop. We don’t ship anything out to be mass produced. It’s one at a time,” she explained. “But it’s the engraving that really makes the thing stand out. And also the size. They’re pretty big.”
Her studio in Bridgeport is not a retail space, however. All sales will be done through her Web site, www.dreammountainstudio.com, which will launch at about the time this article runs, she said. From there, she will explore how to establish a presence on the Internet. Her niece, Megan Grable, will help her with other marketing endeavors.
Suszynski has the illustrious distinction of being the first woman accepted into the Carpenter’s Union of Chicago.
“I joined the Carpenter’s Union and I did a four-year apprenticeship in my 20s in Chicago,” she said, explaining that the union has four designations: carpenter, cabinetmaker, floorlayer and millwright.
Her husband Ed is an electromechanical engineer “who thinks he’s retired.”
She said that she still feels like a newcomer even after nearly five years of living in June Lake. “It’s just such an unusual place to live, I’m still getting used to it – being so close to the wilderness,” she said.
And close to local politics, she added. “In San Diego I had no idea what the city council was doing. Here, I know the people who are making the decisions or not making the decisions.”
Suszynski is also known locally for her work as a thespian. She was the director of Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, produced by Sierra Classic Theatre at the Mammoth Lakes Arts Center last summer.
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 04 July 2009 )
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