Burrowed into a den of fake fur and pillow foam, 28-year-old Laurie Johnson works on her newest life-size costume wielding an electric turkey carver and a pair of scissors. Johnson has been handcrafting mascots since the age of 15, when she went to her first convention.
“I originally was very interested in anime and made costumes for conventions and just never stopped,” she said.
Since those early beginnings Johnson has made more than 20 costumes for herself, friends and even corporations including the Tennessee Aquarium and McKamey Animal Center, averaging about three a year. Her mascots are all one-of-a-kind and made to support an organization, a team, or simply to entertain. The swollen-head characters take an average of 40 to 70 hours each to complete, but that translates into weeks of work, as Johnson has a full-time job as an animal control officer and works sporadically whenever she feels the calling.
Johnson, who has never had formal training, uses the Internet to get basic ideas about materials and how to assemble them, but also relies heavily on her creativity.
“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked around the hardware store to look for things that might work. … You just have to have a little imagination,” Johnson said of her work method. “The best thing I can compare it to is chain-saw carving. It’s kind of like that, but with foam.”