We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Laura Steele. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Laura below.

Laura, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I was streaming on IG and fell in love with the work of an artist from the UK. She would take vintage plates and cut them to create birds. I bought one and decided to try doing it myself. I didn’t want to copy her exactly so I created my own style and moved into angel wings, cats, sun, moon and of course more types of birds. I had to first find the plates and then start experimenting on how to cut them. I learned a lot in my first few pieces. When I look back at those and what I do now, it’s apparent how much I’ve learned from doing the work. I tucked the first ones away from other eyes but keep them so I can remember that practice makes perfect.
The skills most desired for doing mosaics is to not be afraid to cut a beautiful plate. My reasoning is that it’s being repurposed because otherwise it will sit inside someone’s cabinet never seeing the light. I especially like to find chipped plates or plates with a lot of cracking since they’ll be thrown away due to not being safe to eat on. My inspirational artist who lives in the UK goes through tons of plates because finding them over there is so much easier than the US but thanks to EBay, FB marketplace and antique shops, my closet is full.

Laura, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

As a life coach that guides people through a meditation process, I am always hearing about relationship, job, grief and sadness. The world we live in can be overwhelming with all of the division and grief. My father died in 2020 and I was not able to say goodbye or attend his funeral. They didn’t have one due to lockdowns from Covid. It broke my heart. I remember getting the call when I was eating breakfast out of one of the blue bowls that we had. It’s funny how we remember certain things when we are told something that shifts our life in a major way. One of those bowls broke right when I decided to give mosaics a try. So I drew out a wing to be cut out of wood. I was inspired by the quote from Luciano De Creschenzo, “We are each of us angels with only one wing and we can only fly embracing each other.”
My father and I sang opera together and we taught children all about Mozart through his small opera company out of Maine called “The Pocket Opera Players”. He and I had so much fun singing and teaching in the US and abroad. My grief was deep and had no where to go so with each cut and placement, I created my first wing in remembrance of my dad. This process is something I coach others on so I turned the tables and did it myself. It was very cathartic and now the wing sits in one of my windows in remembrance of him.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Since my first wing was created to help me work through the grief of losing my father, I have been commissioned by others to create pieces to help them with their loss as well. A dear friend of mine saw the wing I did for my dog Kiska who died at 17.5 years old. I did it to work through my grief of her loss like my first wing for my father. It commemorates our walks together, the color of her fur and the flowers picked along the paths. So she had me do one for her cat in the colors that reminded her of him. Another commission had me design a chameleon. Thankfully I had some bright green plates. Her daughter was grieving the loss of her pet Lydia and she loved it as a way to remember her. Life can be celebrated too, like a wing sent to a new mom for her new baby girl. I made a wing to remember the lives lost in Maui and a friend of mine purchased it because she visits Maui all of the time and it holds special meaning to her as well.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

Art is an expression of the creator and some work takes a lot of time to create. When I was trying to figure out what to charge for my work, it was very difficult because mosaic work is extremely time consuming. You get faster at it as you go however there is also the picking out of the vintage plates, thickness and color of the plate, how it will cut and lay onto the piece. Movement of pieces to create a flow of color before gluing. The prep of the wood with the cutting and sanding before you even start cutting and then the grouting and painting at the end. I give great respect to all artists because it’s all of the stuff you don’t see in the work that takes the time.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @mosaicsunderthepines
• Other: Currently working on a website but it’s not ready yet.