Laura Reynolds models some of her two dimensional art at DragonCon 2003. (Art (c) Laura Reynolds) (Photo by Jean Marie Ward)

What do Axel Rose, Boris Vallejo, Circus Circus and the dean of the University of Maryland have in common? The art of Laura Reynolds. Best known for her sculptures and fantastical mixed-media animals outfitted in lavish, fully accessorized costumes, Reynolds' professional career began in 1986 when she tied for first place in a scarecrow contest. The store that sponsored the contest purchased her entry -- a white creature Reynolds describes as a cross between a deer and a goat. Then the store asked for more. Other retailers soon followed.

Reynolds used her prize money to support her work with wild birds -- an effort that began when she was barely out of junior high school. Today, Reynolds divides her time between her art, rescuing wounded birds, and educating children and teens about hawks, owls and other protected species…and talking to Crescent Blues.

Crescent Blues: How do you put one of your clothed animal figures together?

Laura Reynolds: I usually make all the heads and hands at one time. I'll have about 15 heads and 15 accompanying sets of hands and, if they're small sculptures, sometimes I'll do little, bare feet.

I'll usually set them in a great, big, huge, stainless steel, salad bowl like they use in school cafeterias. It probably holds five or six gallons of liquid. It's a huge bowl. I throw the heads in the bowl with bubble wrap in the bottom, so I can carry them downstairs or wherever. They all wind up on a shelf.

Then I'll make the bodies. The bodies are made out of fabric with wire and stuffing. There's a drawstring in the body that holds the head out, so you can turn the head. The fabric's usually a really, really heavy duty felt so you don't have to worry about turning or raveling or tearing. You can stuff it very, very tightly.

I've heard people ask, "What kind of wood is the body?" Well, it's not wood. It's just really heavily stuffed fabric. And there's a nice, thick wire in the middle where the arms and tail go so you can move them.

Crescent Blues: When you make the heads and hands, do you know what the finished creature is going to look like?

Reynolds' hand-sculpted and painted griffin wraps around a freestanding bedpost. (Art (c) Laura Reynolds) (Photo by Pam Flora)

Laura Reynolds: Usually not, no. Unless I'm sitting there and say, "Oh, I'm going to make a lion," or, "I need to make a rabbit." Or somebody says they want a unicorn or something, and I'll do that. But usually, I don't know what it's going to be.

I start with a foil ball. Then I put a neck on it. Then I cover the whole thing with clay. Then I have this little round thing staring at me. Then I say, "That face sort of has an oval to it. It looks sort of like a bear." Or it has a flat part where I can put a nose on it and make a dragon.

The only ones I plan ahead (unless I'm doing orders) are humans, because a human has different head shape. It's egg-shaped. Anything else starts with a round ball.

Crescent Blues: Where do you get your fabrics? They're wonderful.

Laura Reynolds: Here and there. Yard sales, flea markets.

Crescent Blues: And the feathers?

Laura Reynolds: I pick those up here and there -- anywhere I can find them.

Crescent Blues: How did you get started on the little wrapped-wire dragons?

Laura Reynolds: A friend of mine went to an art fair, and she bought a pin -- and she paid way too much for it. It was a little bumblebee, an inch and a half or two inches long -- a little, round fat bumblebee. She said, "Isn't that cool?"

I looked at it and thought, this isn't anything but fabric and wire. So I said, I'm not going to make insects, because there's already someone making insects, and I'm not going to copy them. But I wanted to see what I could do. I'd like to do a dragon like that.

I did a dragon, and somebody said, "Oooh, I want that."

I did another dragon. Someone said, "Oooh, I want that."

So I did 12 dragons, and everyone said, "I want that!"

Now I'm up to my armpits in them.

Semi-precious stones and jeweler's weight chain form the breastplate on this rhinocerous. (Art (c) Laura Reynolds) (Photo by Pam Flora)

Crescent Blues: Do you have a season of the year that you do art, or do you do it all the time?

Laura Reynolds: All the time.

Crescent Blues: When did you start painting and creating collages?

Laura Reynolds: I've always done that. In between the sculptures, I kind of doodle.

People automatically assume you must do preliminary drawings for the sculptures. But I don't. I've never done a preliminary drawing and done a sculpture from it.

I've done sculptures from other people's drawings. Somebody else can hand me drawings and say, "Can you make this character for me? I need it 12 inches tall."

I can do that. But I don't make my own drawing and then do a sculpture from it.

Crescent Blues: What was the first convention you went to?

Laura Reynolds: It was a convention called Rivercon in Louisville, Kentucky. They no longer have it. After 25 years, they retired it. By the way, the same group of people who ran Rivercon now have a new convention called Conglomeration. It's a nice one. It's pretty small. It's also in Louisville.

Crescent Blues: What was the reaction to your stuff at your first Rivercon?

Laura Reynolds: I sold it -- quite a bit of it. That was 12-15 years ago.

Crescent Blues: How many conventions do you do in an average year?

Laura Reynolds: Four or five…. I do MarCon. It's a really good one. I do Millennicon in Cincinnati. It's a smallish one, but a lot of people go for the art. Balticon, I've done, but I don't know if we're going to do it this year. The problem with Balticon is that it's up north in the winter, and it's really not fun to go through those mountains. WindyCon, we've done. That's in Chicago. That's a good one.

Crescent Blues: Now you're painting on fabric, as well. You don't see that often at a con.

Laura Reynolds: If somebody wants a t-shirt, I'll do them. But I don't have an airbrush. I do them by hand. So they take a long time.

Crescent Blues: Is there any medium you haven't worked in that you'd like to try?

Laura Reynolds: Yes, I want to work in metal. I'd like to use a plasma torch and do cutting and dyeing. I'd love to do bronze, but it's very expensive.

Crescent Blues: Is that why you haven't tried it so far?

Not quite out of the box several small Laura Reynolds sculptures await display at DragonCon 2003. (Art (c) Laura Reynolds) (Photo by Jean Marie Ward)

Laura Reynolds: It's too expensive unless you have your own foundry, which I don't want to do. The though of me standing around in an asbestos suit with a pot of molten metal just leaves me shivering.

If I go to a foundry and work with somebody there, it's about $45 an hour to use the facilities. A small piece of sculpture would probably cost me $3,000 to $5,000 just for the one. I know there are people who do that, but for me it would be really ridiculous. I need to find someplace like a university or someone who has their own foundry who'll say, "Oh sure. Come on in." There are people like that out there. I just haven't found one yet.

Crescent Blues: With all the art you create, you do all the work yourself, from the sculpting to the sewing and decorating. Does that include making the stands?

Laura Reynolds: Everything. I do cut my own bases.

Crescent Blues: How does your day start? What's a typical day?

Laura Reynolds: I don't have a schedule. Today, I might do four [sculptures]. Tomorrow, I might not be home. Wednesday, I might have to go to three schools with the birds.

Crescent Blues: Let's talk about that a minute. I understand you rescue wounded birds.

Laura Reynolds: Right. Hawks, owls, things like that.

Crescent Blues: How did you get started taking care of wild birds?

Laura Reynolds: I have no idea. It sounds like a cop-out, but I really don't. I just wanted to do it, and I did it. There are a lot of things you have to go through. You have to get permits, you have to take tests, you have to build cages.

Crescent Blues: How old were you when you first started doing this?

Laura Reynolds: Fourteen.

Two small mixed media dragons and an Native American-themed fox. (Art (c) Laura Reynolds) (Photo by Jean Marie Ward)

Crescent Blues: Wasn't it hard to do something like that so young?

Laura Reynolds: It was. The minimum age for having a permit is 16. So my parents had to sign a letter saying it was all right with them. It caused a big sensation, because no one else that young was doing it at the time.

Crescent Blues: Now you're educating other young people about them. Where do you conduct your school programs -- Lexington?

Laura Reynolds: Actually, all over Kentucky. I take them everywhere. I've been all the way from western Kentucky to the West Virginia border.

Crescent Blues: Do you do that all by yourself or do you have help?

Laura Reynolds: Myself and my mother. We live in the same house. We have three generations of people living in the same house. My grandmother lives there too.

Crescent Blues: What does she think about the critters?

Laura Reynolds: She likes them.

Crescent Blues: Oh good.

Laura Reynolds: She nicknames the dragons. Usually, I'll line them up on the couch at night, because I have to wait for the glue to dry before I put them away. And she'll say, "Oh, look, the little rats are out."

Especially, if I haven't put the wings on them -- they look like little lizards. Like little alligators hatched all over the house.

Crescent Blues: What's been your biggest sale so far?

Laura Reynolds -- Continued