We were lucky to catch up with Laura Mauger recently and have shared our conversation below.

Laura, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

Learning to do what I do has definitely been a process that’s had lots of layers to it. There’s been lots of creative experimentation and instruction. Throughout my middle and high school years, I took the opportunity to sign up for every art class that I could fit into my school schedule. These included multiple painting and drawing classes, as well as 3D design, graphic design, and AP art. I continued to pursue art in college with a BFA in graphic design from James Madison University, where part of my coursework was taking more painting, drawing, and 3D design classes as well as 2D design, sculpture, jewelry design, lithography, typography, poster design, brand identity, graphic design, illustration, and I even minored in dance.

My years post college were less art focused and more design focused as I worked as a graphic designer, occasionally I would paint with acrylics just for fun or as gifts, or constructed decorations for halloween parties. Creating the decor became an exercise in how I could create something that looked really cool or expensive with only basic or inexpensive materials.

What shifted me towards where I am now, was actually the pandemic. I had lots of free time and leftover art supplies from past projects. One of those supplies was white, Sculpey polymer clay that I decided to make some floral themed jewelry from. I was inspired by a jewelry set I had by the artist Gaetano “Nino” Galoppo, an artisan I had seen working in the Italy section of Busch Gardens Williamsburg when I had gone with my family to the park growing up. Galoppo creates Capodimonte style porcelain jewelry, which includes a lot of floral designs. The designs are sculpted out of white clay and then he would use paint to color the petals. I didn’t have porcelain or the paints he used, but I had Sculpey and lots of Apple Barrel acrylic paints, so I gave it a shot and I liked how it turned out. I continued making jewelry eventually switching from jewelry sets, to just earrings, to creating crowns.

Looking back, my sculpting skills would have progressed faster if I had branched into using Super Sculpey and Sculpey Premo earlier on. Both of those polymer clay types are harder clay that hold detail better, and are stronger than original Sculpey. This makes a big difference in the level of realism you can create in your sculpture and allows you to create much thinner petals for flowers. It showed me that sometimes it’s the quality of your materials that are holding you back instead of your skills.

With my work, I believe that my ability to combine and build on skills is actually the most essential skill I have. Combining sculpture, painting, and even flower design (which I first tried when I got married, to cut down on our wedding costs, and continued in, while working for Amy Marie Events), makes my polymer clay work very different looking than a lot of other artists out there.

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?

I love making art, it doesn’t matter whether it’s painting, drawing, sculpture or design, I just love to make things. My style is all about color. Color in its vibrancy, its nuance, its ability to show light and life, and the depth it can bring to an image or sculpture. For me, making art is a chance to have fun and bring fantastical places or people to life from my imagination. It’s a process of growing, changing, trying, learning, exploring and furthering. My paintings and drawings are vibrant and tend to lean more towards fantasy, floral, or ocean themes with mermaids being a reoccurring focus.

As an artist skilled in multiple mediums, right now I am focusing on creating wearable sculptures, specifically, creating fantasy and mermaid inspired crowns. I like to call them artessories, because they are little works of art that you can wear. Creating crowns is one way to bring my many acquired skills into one. Each piece is hand sculpted from a single color polymer clay, and hand painted with acrylic paints, no two are the same. They’re special pieces for special moments in the stories of our lives like weddings, fantasy balls, or cosplay. My crowns are meant to spark joy, cultivate beauty, and allow you to enter into a greater story full of wonder and whimsy.

What sets me apart from a lot of other crown designers is that my work doesn’t have very many premade elements, and they are mostly made of polymer clay. The frames for each design are wire that I have bent and wrapped to my desired shape and all of the clay pieces are sculpted and painted by hand instead of created from molds. Occasionally I might add some purchased jewel charms, chains, or glass gems, but overall the designs are made up of what my hands can fashion from the clay. I have even practiced matching designs to different outfits so that if someone wanted to commission a crown to match their wedding dress or mermaid tail, I could create something that paired well aesthetically.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I want people to experience beauty and creativity through my art. When someone places one of my crowns on their heads I want them to look in the mirror and think “Wow! I feel so beautiful!” and for them to let their imagination play. Creativity is innate in everyone but it’s like a muscle, if you don’t exercise it, it weakens and withers, but when strong creativity is displayed with beauty, it sparks the desire for others to try and reach for it as well.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

I think one of the ways society can best support artists and creatives is to recognize that the cost of creating art isn’t cheap. Art supplies, especially higher grade materials are expensive, and what primarily goes into the cost of art is the time that it takes to create finished pieces. The saying, “good things take time”, is especially true with creative projects, and sometimes, they take lots of time.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.lauramauger.com
• Instagram: @maugerlc
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/maugerlc/

Image Credits

Josiah Mauger