THE STORY OF THE IMAGINARIUM
In 2010 my husband and I were trying to figure out what we wanted to theme our wedding as, when he came up with the idea of having a masquerade. I look into buying them online but I didn’t want to pay the huge shipping price to have so many of them (over 150) shipped over seas to us, as there were not any local suppliers. I hadn’t been doing anything artistic at that point in years, but I decided to try my hand at making them on my own. I had never really used paper mache before nor had I worked with plaster but I made my own glue mixture, bought some plaster and started molding. This all went down in my tiny kitchen in our old place, amidst the chaos of two toddler boys and being pregnant with our third. It took a few tries to get the hang of it. The masks turned out to not only be a huge success, but they also helped me find my identity again. After becoming a mother, the life change had me losing my sense of direction with who I was, who I could be as a mother, who I had been in the past. It was a hard struggle and making our wedding masks, the creation process was the light I needed.
After our wedding one of our guests reached out to buy the remaining masks that had been left over (I think there were 7 left). Which amazed me! There were a few things that I did not like about my original masks. The surface of the mask was very rough and they were extremely fragile. So after I sold the remaining masks, I decided to figure out how I could make them better. I did so much research and eventually just decided to experiment as I couldn’t find any answers.
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Once I figured out the best medium to create with, I started to create some masks. I made a page on facebook and called it The Labyrinth Workshop (after the movie The Labyrinth). An old college friend reached out to me and gave me some info on Matta Fest which she thought the masks would do really well at. So, in 2011, I created masks themed in nature and got accepted in to my first venue. With a baby on my hip, two toddlers running wild and my husband in tow we arrived at Matta Fest with a simple folding table and an old table cloth. I sold almost every single mask I had created.
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Fast forward to two years later in 2013 I had at that point many festivals, group exhibitions, variety shows, wearable art shows, theatre plays, a dinosaur ball and many fairs under my belt. I decided it was time to revamp my business cards and as I was designing them, I came up with a name change and The Imaginarium was born (inspired by the movie The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus). I wanted a name that would encompass all that I was creating at that point of my business. I had expanded to beyond masks to include jewelry, witch hats, journals, candle & incense holders, steampunk goggles, scrying mirrors, wands, business card holders, steampunk mini hats, jewelry boxes, small statues and most of all my wearable art pieces.
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I can not describe the feeling of creating masks. The sense of creating an entirely new character, a new sense of being, an escape from the weight of the world that we carry, a doorway into another realm of existence. They and my wearable art pieces are where my heart truly lies.
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The Imaginarium is a place where only my imagination is my limit and therefore there is no limit. If I can dream it, I can make it.
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Peace & Love
The Mask Maker