Magazine for the professional nail industry.
Issue link: http://nailsmag.epubxp.com/i/190368
From the canvas Alice CRAMMER Hamilton, New Jersey Alice Crammer is a full-time nail tech and part-time freelance artist. She creates about three to four large-scale commissioned paintings per year — most of them are acrylic portraits. "A lot of my art clients tend to be my nail clients too," says Crammer. "I bring my paintings into the salon and that gets them interested. I've done everything from family portraits to a painting of the family pet." Crammer does pen sketches as well — something she can practice more regularly. A lot of clients come to her wanting tattoos, so she'll sketch their ideas to life. Currently, she's creating a logo for a client who's starting her own business as a children's book writer. So far, wordof-mouth has been her biggest ally. Nail art, she says, is another great way to promote her fine arts business. "Clients see my nail art and start to question me: 'What else do you do besides nails?'" When Crammer was getting her cosmetology license, she originally didn't know she'd choose nails. "I was always a tomboy," says Crammer. "But when I saw how much art is actually in nails, I got into it. There's so much you can do." After graduating, both a client and a hairdresser at her current employer, Sydney Albert Salon and Spa, recommended her when they were looking for nail techs. "I didn't search for my job, it searched for me," says Crammer. "It was a sign I should go into nails." Crammer now enters contests — both in print and online — for her nails and her paintings regularly. "I think doing nails helps a lot with my painting, and vice versa. But doing nails every day is what really keeps me up to date. With art, it's one of those things where if you don't work on your skills all the time, you don't stay good." When it comes to nail art, Crammer definitely has a type. "As long as it's something detailed, I'm good," she says. "I don't like doing simple stuff like stripes and flowers. I like doing nails that become true talking piece for my clients." In her salon, Crammer is known for being able to do "the difficult stuff." "I like being able to have a challenge at work," she says. "I like when people come in with a random Instagram picture and ask, 'Can you do this?'" The most challenging thing Crammer says she has ever had to do was replicate photos of her client's dog on her nails. Her favorite challenge was a Disney-inspired manicure for one of her clients. "The client has really long nails so I was able to get a lot of detail work in," Crammer says. "I'm the most proud of that." >>> 164 | NAILS MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2013 to the fingertips