Melbourne based designer Marie-Lauren Romano creates little sculptures in her studio space in River Studios, which is an excellent creative facility run by the City of Melbourne (‘Creative Spaces’ team).
MLR, the is the name she’s exhibiting under, in essence is an extension of my spontaneous approach to creativity, design and surface creation. Possessing an ardent interest in contemporary jewelry, interior styling, fashion and Melbourne’s café culture, she draws inspiration from her surroundings and material at hand. Marie-Lauren is multi-talented young creative lady.
Marie-Lauren posing with some of her art work
Her current disciplines of focus are silver smithing (lost-wax casting) and commissioned mixed media paintings (abstract). “Working across multiple mediums (acrylic, oil pastels, silver smithing, wax casting) and projects I am fascinated by the interplay of colour combinations, and the emotion I am able to conjure through a unique surface. Each blank canvas acts as an endless possibility. Not afraid to push boundaries, I trial non-traditional methods and mediums in non-conventional compositions.” tells Marie-Lauren.
Marie-Lauren has not had any formal jewelry design training, relying on the method of ‘lost wax’ casting to create each one-off sterling silver piece. Quite impressive if you’re asking me. Her jewels are perfect to be worn everyday
She definitely has a immense artistic creativity.
Marie-Lauren celebrates texture, angles, hidden details and imperfect beauty. See by yourself below. It are pieces I’d absolutely wear those jewels myself. Really my kind of rings and necklaces.
Drawing inspiration from; hidden details, curved forms, the simplicity of textural details, and the material at hand. MLR pieces are honest, and experimental resulting in slightly unpredictable outcomes with a rough organic aesthetic, generally including Marie’s signature, stippling details.
Rarely planning her designs Marie-Lauren prefers to experiment throughout the process, making elements imperfect yet appealing. MLR can be thought of as miniature sculptures displaying expressive, eclectic, dream-like qualities; for example Marie-Lauren’s fingerprints may appear embalmed in the physical mold of pieces. That’s what I like about jewels, knowing they’ve made every single piece themselves. 100% authentic. 100% unique.
[All images MLR via and Instagram | Collages by MoJ]