Lauren Vartanian, better known by her business name Neurons and Nebulas is a Guelph based textile artist. Her science inspired work is so intricate and her attention to detail is truly incredible. While we first connected online, we met in real life at Art on the Street in Guelph. This is one of my all time favourite shows because of how delightfully quirky the locals are. And man oh man does this crowd appreciate handmade!
I know Lauren and I both look forward to this event every year because of the high calibre of the vendors and how well the show is organized. There aren't many shows around that have such a stringent jurying process, it's definitely the only show I apply to that requires a CV with the application.
Note: For those who may not know a CV, or Curriculum Vitae, is an artist resume that outlines your education, any awards and accolades you have received, a history of exhibitions you have participated in, and any publications your work is featured in. If you went to art school you were likely forced, in at least 2 of your courses, to create one.
Lauren's fine art background definitely helps her out there! That background also gives her a really interesting perspective on how she defines handmade.
What does handmade mean to you?
To me, handmade means slow and deliberate. Putting blood sweat and tears into something that you really care about. I have this odd sense of moral pride where I have to do everything myself. I still can’t bring myself (or afford to) hire someone to do the sewing for me, because then it doesn’t feel like it’s my work. To me handmade means something I physically produced.
How long have you been working in your chosen medium? Did you attend college or university to learn your craft?
I’ve been crafty all my life and have always been a multidisciplinary artist. I went to OCAD University and got a degree in drawing and painting. I was 18 when I started and felt forced into what I thought I was best at, but realized too late I would have preferred to go through the design stream so that I could have pursued medical illustration. I was always told my paintings were too “illustrative.” In my final years I was making these abstract paintings that I saw as a blend of inner and outer space. Make believe anatomical structures or physiological phenomenon floating in nebula like backgrounds. That’s when I began trying to blend my love of art and science and was the inspiration for my business name. I now use one of my paintings on my backing cards. I also learned through electives that I really enjoyed sculpture and anything that was tactile. I took a bronze casting class at OCAD and loved it. I was a dental technician for 6 years- that’s making false teeth in a lab setting, and that was 100 percent hands on, dexterous and detailed work. I also took a brief foray into amateur taxidermy until I became pregnant, at which point I started making faux taxidermy sculptures out of polymer clay. I’ve only been doing the textile art for about 4 years now, and it started with a friend’s video project. I was helping with some of the art department things and he requested a “heart brooch.” The design I make now was the idea that popped into my head. I loved the result and thought I could really branch out with that idea. And it was the perfect avenue to finally bring science and art together in a way that brought me the most satisfaction.
Tell me about your process. What would surprise people about your process? Is there a part of your process that you don't enjoy?
I used to make my own stencils, trace and hand cut every design/pattern. Once there was enough of a demand, I needed to figure out some way of stepping up production. I had heard of digital cutters but their straight blade was no good for cutting felt. When the Cricut Maker came out, with its rotary blade, it was a life saver. I still draw my designs then scan and trace them in a vector illustration program. Then in order to import them into the Cricut software I have to figure out which piece is going to be which colour of felt, isolate it, and make sure it’s going to fit with the rest of the design. It’s like a puzzle. Once the design is set, I can make as many as I want or resize the whole thing. To optimize materials and time I try cutting several patterns at once. But then I need to figure out how many pink pieces I need of one particular design and try to fit it on a sheet with pink pieces from other designs and so on. More puzzles and more time! It takes at least half a day to cut out just a few patterns. Some of the more finicky designs are still hand cut because they are too tiny for the Cricut machine to handle. The sewing itself is super chill and enjoyable for the most part. I do sort of cringe when I have to start certain steps of the more time-consuming designs. I still don’t think I could sew these on a machine. They are too tiny and the way they are constructed require the dexterity of doing them by hand.
What about your chosen medium(s) made you pursue your craft?
I like the precious quality of it. When I was painting, my goal was always to have people get up really close to the work and examine every detail. It wasn’t too successful in that medium. These tiny little soft sculptures are inviting to touch and to get up-close and personal with. I like the repetitive, meditative aspect of sewing. I’m a very anxious person and this keeps me pretty relaxed. It was also a very easy thing to be able to put down suddenly and come back to with a little kid around. And that needed to be done constantly. I can’t work with her at home anymore, but maybe some day she can help me thread needles.
If you could work in any other medium, what would it be?
I had a period when I thought about doing jewellery because of my transferable skills. Bronze casting was really neat but to be honest, I enjoyed the wax sculpture part more than the metal work. A few years after graduating from OCAD I went into Dental Technology. A lot of the same principles of bronze casting and jewellery making are used on a smaller scale- the lost wax process. And the porcelain crown work was essentially making tiny anatomical sculptures with ceramic powder and paintbrush. It seemed like the perfect fit for me in theory, and I enjoyed it in school. However, I still have nightmares about the casting process, and didn’t like the pressure of the margins on the crowns needing to be exact or else it might affect someone’s health. There’s much less pressure for absolute perfection with art!
What is the most important thing you want people to know about your work?
How long it takes. When I was doing the animal sculptures, they took me FAR longer than I was giving myself credit for. I was constantly getting snide comments about them being too much money or “not worth that” when in reality I was charging too low a price paying myself far less than minimum wage for something that on average took a bare minimum of 8 hours to sculpt. I had people who thought I was just buying plastic animals from the dollar store, cutting their heads off and putting them on a base. No. I was building them up from tinfoil, polymer clay, painting them, and making the wooden plaques myself. When I was doing pet portraits, I was losing out on so much time from the other parts of my business that I enjoyed more, and still not making enough money for what I was doing. The people who wanted the portraits were usually way more understanding than the general public, but I could not handle taking my sculptures to craft shows anymore. Not to mention people didn’t understand that I made EVERYTHING on the table in front of them. The felt work and the sculptures were too disparate. Not to mention how it was next to impossible to balance my time on the portraits, the work for shows in two different mediums, and a toddler that was home more often than at daycare. I am SO much happier having dropped the sculpture from my repertoire.
What is your greatest accomplishment, or the thing you are most proud of achieving with your art?
I have a few of my framed felt pieces hanging in the offices of university professors and medical professionals. Some people wear my brooches as a sort of badge of awareness for medical issues. One of my proudest moments was when a woman from the Outreach Team at Science North bought 10 of my brooches to give to her staff. They wear them on their lab coats when they teach science programming to kids. She bought another 11 this past holiday season for the new team! Mostly I am happy that I’ve finally found a thing that I enjoy doing that people are willing to buy! When I was trying to sell my paintings, people would always compliment them and say it was very beautiful and interesting work, but they weren’t moving. I still have so many of those paintings sitting in storage at my house!
What has been your biggest challenge while pursuing your art?
Keeping up with demand. Because I insist on doing everything myself, and because it’s inherently slow work, AND because I still have a small child at home 2 days of the week, it’s hard to output as much as I’d like to. The uteri, heart and kidney designs tend to sell out at every event, but I simply can’t make enough between shows. I can’t do too many back to back shows either and it’s a huge stress to do more than one show in a month. But my biggest challenge by far is pricing, and properly keeping track of how long something takes me. I always low ball my time estimate then people are like “that’s it!?” It’s like that concept of being able to do something in 30 minutes because you’ve practiced the skill for many years in order to be able to do it in that time. People owe you for your years, not your minutes. For me it’s more like 2 hours minimum. And you have to get that I do this every single day, so I’m well practiced, but it’s still something that will never be less than 2 hours of stitching because of all the components and different coloured threads etc. The kidney takes at least 4 hours. I also always forget to factor in the hours it takes to design and digitize, cut out the patterns, and if it’s framed, all the work I put into sanding and staining those. I also want my work to be affordable enough that people WILL buy it. It’s such a tricky thing, and so much psychology goes into pricing too. I just need some expert to come along and say “this needs to be $__. Make it so.”
Has the confusion surrounding the term "handmade" affected your business/practice? What are your thoughts on re-sellers?
So many events use the term handmade like a buzzword. I’ve been to a lot of events where the table next to me clearly resells or outsources. I don’t do well at those events because the neighbouring vendor can sell their product for much cheaper than I can, then customers think my prices seem over-inflated. I’ve learned to be very selective with the types of shows I apply for now. Also, because I work in serial and have multiples of each design at a time, I think some people think they are factory, or in the least, machine made. Nope, these are all hand sewn, BY ME. Maybe they think it’s not one of a kind anymore if I have more than one to choose from, but each one is going to have variation, and each one takes me just as long to produce. Sometimes I just have more of one design because it doesn’t sell as well and the stock is starting to pile up. I might have made that particular brooch in 2017 but it’s coming with me to shows until it sells!
How do you (and how can we) educate consumers about what handmade actually means?
I don’t know… I had an info-graphic type poster that broke down the animal sculptures at every stage and people still didn’t seem to get how time consuming they were. I even thought of having a video playing of me making them, or bringing a chunk of the cold hard clay to sit next to them, but I got so sick of the notion of needing to justify my prices because of the process. With the textile art, I think more people have some concept of how long it takes to sew something. And they are usually impressed by the level of detail. I do better at events that are more artisan-based and get the most respect when the crowd knows textiles.
How has being an artist changed the way you shop?
I can really value craftsmanship, and love when I am able to support an artist whose work I love. I’m not a big spender to begin with; heck I still wear some of the same clothes I wore in college because I can’t be bothered to spend money on things that aren’t “necessary.” But if I really love something that an artist makes, I will spend money on that. If I can afford it.
Who are your favourite makers?
I have met so many great and talented makers through Instagram and also in my own community. Guelph has a pretty great art and handmade scene. I could make a list a mile long but three people (not local) who really stand out for me are:
Khara Ledonne. I’ve been in awe of her work for so long now and I’m finally getting a piece from her. She does these incredibly detailed miniature paintings on lockets and compasses etc. A lot of Space themed pieces too which obviously speak to me. Heather Weathers of Sew Oddity is another science inspired textile artist that I really admire. Her colours and textures are so lovely and she’s got an excellent illustrative quality to her work. Lydia Eggeling is a rogue taxidermist who makes the most mindbogglingly adorable miniatures for her mouse dioramas. Her mouse preschool room is the effing cutest thing I’ve ever seen.