![\"MORGAN](\"http:\/\/www.marshwoodvale.com\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/MORGAN-FREEMAN-for-web.jpg\")
Whilst interviewing Mike Wade at his studio, a parcel arrives. \u2018That\u2019s Renaldo\u2019s kit\u2019, he says casually. His actual kit? \u2018Oh, yes\u2019 replies Mike as if receiving the clothes of the rich and famous was an everyday occurrence, which of course it is, if you are one of the world\u2019s leading waxwork sculptors.\nMike has a fascinating story about how he started out and how his company has come to be recognised for it\u2019s exceptional quality and attention to detail. \u2018I left school at 16\u2019, he says, \u2018with very little clue about what I wanted to do\u2019. He fell in with an eccentric Irish builder and started to work for him renovating pubs. \u2018This was back in 1983 and this guy was really at the forefront of creating the theme pub and the gastro pub\u2019. His big idea was The Pie Factory Pub in Tipton, where Mike ended up sculpting a full size cow for the interior. \u2018That wasn\u2019t the end of it though\u2019, says Mike, \u2018he also wanted a huge pig\u2019s head, oversized pies, sides of beef and a mincing machine. It wasn\u2019t a pub for vegetarians\u2019.
\nHe loved doing it, but with no experience, taught himself as he went along, with the help of some well thumbed library books (no internet in those days). His then girlfriend saw an advert for model makers at Madame Tussauds and he applied as a bit of joke. \u201cI got an interview\u2019, he says, \u2018but I didn\u2019t hear anything back for three months. Eventually, I thought I would give them a ring and they said \u201cWhere are you? Come and start now\u201d.\u2019
\nSo, Mike made his way to London and the famous studio of Madame Tussauds. \u2018It was so intimidating\u2019, he recalls, \u2018they asked me if I had brought my tools, which of course I hadn\u2019t, because I didn\u2019t own any\u2019. It was a brilliant time to join the company, however, as they had decided to take on some new blood, as many of the old boys were nearing retirement age. \u2018People often think I must have been very good to get the job, but really I think it was because I knew so little. They were looking for people to train up in their particular way of working\u2019.
\nOf course, the Madame Tussuads way was very traditional. \u2018It was a slow and meticulous process\u2019, says Mike, \u2018using ways of working that had remained the same for hundreds of years\u2019. It would take fifteen separate pieces to make a head for example. Mike stayed with the company for thirteen years\u2014\u2018it was an amazing apprenticeship, where I really learnt my trade\u2019. The blas\u00e9 approach to wardrobe might also have been fostered here.
\n\u2018We had a huge wardrobe at Madame Tussuads\u2019 says Mike, \u2018including clothes bequeathed to us from famous murderers for the Chamber of Horrors. It wasn\u2019t unusual for staff to borrow clothes from the wardrobe department, especially if we had weddings or formal events to attend. I went to a wedding once wearing President Mitterand\u2019s shoes\u2019. Other \u2018borrows\u2019 weren\u2019t quite so benign. \u2018I was renovating a tiny house in Notting Hill at the time\u2019, recalls Mike, \u2018we had no bathroom, so I borrowed an old tin bath that I was told had come from Warwick Castle. After several months of use, I came across the Warwick Castle brochure with a photo of a tin bath in it that looked nothing like the one I was using. A little further research revealed that the bath I had been using came from John Chritsie\u2019s house (10 Rillington Place), the scene of multiple gruesome murders in the 1940s and 50s. I took it straight back to the storeroom\u2019.
\nAfter Mike\u2019s long stint at Madame Tussauds, he felt the company was changing. \u2018It was becoming more and more corporate and losing some of its character\u2019, so he made the change and went freelance. His first jobs were strange, to say the least. \u2018My very first commission was an effigy of Father George Preca that was taken to the Vatican to be blessed by Pope John Paul for the beatification\u2019. He also worked for an old funeral directors based in Holborn making death masks \u2018mainly for Italian aristocrats\u2019.
\nHowever, he also was commissioned to make the death mask of Anthony Burgess. \u2018His widow lived in Bakers Street, so I decided to take it to her personally\u2019, says Mike. \u2018She was obviously grieving and traumatised by her loss. When she saw the mask she absolutely hated it. \u201cHe looks so peaceful\u201d she said \u201cwhereas in life he was so animated\u201d.\u2019 Mike took it away and didn\u2019t accept payment for it. He recently donated it to the Anthony Burgess Foundation.
\nSince then, Mike has gone from strength to strength with his business, currently employing a team of freelancers to help realise his commissions. His portfolio is extensive, making figures as diverse as Beyonce through to Mother Theresa.\u00a0 Work shows no sign of slowing down and he has a full order book. \u2018Much of my work goes abroad\u2019, he says, \u2018I work with a lot of small family owned waxwork museums on the continent, which is lovely as it feels like the old days at Madame Tussauds\u2019. He also produces work for larger museums (Renaldo is off to a museum in Portugal) and public and private collections.
\nThe work is still produced slowly\u2014it takes three months just to make the head\u2014and a further month to put the hair in, strand by strand.\u00a0 Mike has dressmakers to recreate outfits with painstaking attention to detail, as well as dental technicians to recreate the teeth. However, it is the eyes that are the most incredible and lifelike. Made by a specialist (Mike is understandably reluctant to reveal his sources) they are superbly made and instantly bring the face to life. \u2018The eyes are the hardest\u2019, he says, \u2018not just the actual eyeball, but the exact way it sits in the socket and the surrounding eye area\u2019. The eyes Mike has made are so realistic they are even the right shape, complete with corneal lump.
\nMike\u2019s studio is full to bursting with work in progress and it makes fascinating browsing. By his own admission, waxworking is an unusual profession and one that has more than a passing relationship with the macabre. \u2018As a child I was fascinated by all the old classic horror films\u2019 he says, \u2018Madame Tussaud herself started out by making waxworks of corpses\u2019. It is a fascinating tradition that is being kept alive right here in Dorset by the talented Mr Wade.
\nFor more visit www.wadewaxworks.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"