An Interview with Mads Montagu-Andrews, Founder of Studio Bust

From London to Los Angeles, Studio Bust create personalised sculptures of their client’s bodies, capturing their unique beauty and creating a statue they can display at home. We caught up with Mads, the visionary founder behind Studio Bust, to talk all things entrepreneurship, balancing boundaries and how she likes to rest.

Hi Mads! Please could you introduce yourself and the Studio Bust brand?

I’m Mads, I'm the Founder of Studio Bust and I live in Hampshire with my husband Theo and our three young daughters. At Studio Bust we celebrate the female form at every age and stage - creating works of art that capture a moment in time and can be displayed with pride.

Your brand is so unique, what inspired you to start Studio Bust?

My first two daughters are close in age and it was my pregnancies that inspired me. I have always loved art, with a gallery on the agenda on any city break we plan. Whilst I was pregnant with my first daughter, I was a model for one of Mr Bingo’s yearly advent calendars, then when pregnant with my second daughter, again wanted to capture my changing form but in a different medium. Inspired by my Mother in Law’s varied sculpture collection, I was drawn to Bronze, but wasn't sure we had the space for a life-size bump cast in our London flat, or the budget to sit with a traditional sculptor. Thus, after much research, Studio Bust was born – combining the best of modern technology with age old casting techniques to create bespoke sculptures, scaled to a size that suits our clients.

What were some of the biggest challenges you faced while launching the brand, and how did you overcome them?

Probably imposter syndrome I was a chef before I had children and although I've always had some sort of creative outlet, setting up and running a business when I had two children under 2 definitely took me wildly out of my comfort zone! It’s been a steep learning curve, but I'm also very lucky to have some incredible creatives in my life, who’ve generously shared wisdom and championed Studio Bust when I’ve needed it most.

We’re obsessed with how you celebrate the female form and help people to cherish the skin they’re in. What impact do you hope to have on your clients?

We are passionate about celebrating the unique beauty of each of our clients and always hope that they leave our appointments feeling empowered. It’s not every day you bare all in front of a stranger in the name of art, so we always like to acknowledge that getting to the appointment can feel like an act of bravery in itself! We hope that when they receive their Bust they are reminded that they are bold and brave and that seeing themselves as a work or art reaffirms that they are enough, as they are.

Are there any common themes between your clients? I.e, do most people come in feeling self-conscious?

The biggest theme, especially in the UK, is that our clients like to have a special moment they are celebrating. I think a big part of this is feeling self conscious of admitting that they are proud of their body and this is perhaps understandable given many have lived through 90s diet culture. I think having a big birthday (their’s or a loved ones!) an anniversary or a big life event is often the excuse the need to ignore the voice in their head that ‘so and so might think they are vein. Additionally almost everyone is pleasantly surprised by the scanning experience itself - that it isn’t nearly as scary as anticipated and that it’s really quite liberating!

How exactly does the sculpting process work and how long does it take start to finish?

Each Bust starts with a 3D scan, taken during an appointment hosted by a female member of our team. We host regular appointments in London, NY, LA and Paris and then travel to meet demand, which has seen us host pop ups in Edinburgh, Belgium and Toronto, to name a few!

During our appointments, clients have a chance to see our finishes in person, there are quite a few options to choose from - bespoke colours, materials, sizes and plinths, and we know how nice it is to see and feel things in the flesh and also have the optionality to choose something that feels authentically ‘themʼ. After the appointment, I edit each file and our Busts are then 3D printed at our Hampshire Studio. Our Bronze Sculptures are cast using the lost wax technique, but regardless of finish, each Bust is hand finished for multiple hours meaning we have a 3-4 month lead time on the creation of our Busts.

What materials do you use in the final sculptures?

Our Legacy Collection are all cast in Bronze and are then patinated using different chemicals, heats and pigments, which means we can offer a wide range of bespoke colours, alongside our House Classics Colour range. Our Liberty Collection is made using bioplastics, with Luxe for example containing recycled Bronze Powder, which gives it our signature high shine finish.

What feedback have you received from your community, and how has that shaped your brand?

Our clients love the fact that our spaces often feel like a home from home - it’s so important for them to feel relaxed and safe as this really translates through to the final sculpture so we really keep this in mind when we are plotting future pop ups and locations to host from!

We’re all about inspiring people to take a moment to themselves. How do you like to relax after a long, busy week?

Friday night is movie night in our house and it’s turned into a weekly ritual we all look forward to! In an ideal world, my husband would bath the kids, whilst I have a bath of my own, (MW SOAK Bath Salts always a welcome addition!) after which reconvene in our PJs with pizza, popcorn and a 90s Disney classic. I always think that a long luxurious bath sounds like the dream, but actually I quite like them short and sweet with a deadline, otherwise I find myself still wallowing in cold water an hour later! My goal for 2025 is to get to bed earlier, so ideally I'd spend the rest of the evening winding down - starting a creative project, catching up on a show or reading.

We know entrepreneur life can be gruelling! What kind of boundaries do you have in place to protect your peace?

This is definitely something I’m still learning and juggling and really something that is so much more doable to even think about now that I've built my incredible team. With technology at our fingertips and a global audience on multiple time zones, for a long time I felt like if I could reply I would, even if it was a Saturday. It was only when I found myself sending another small business an email when I was reminded of something at a completely random time, that I realised that just as I wasn’t expecting a reply from them straight away, my client’s likely weren’t either. As a team, we now only reply within UK working hours - of course there are exceptions to this, like when we host weekend appointments, but I think having that boundary in place has enabled me to switch off more fully and get one step closer to that elusive work/life balance!

Finally, describe your dream day off...

I’m feeling guilty but after a busy Christmas, I’m dreaming of a quieter day and the ability to finish a conversation! So for my child free day of bliss, I'd like to spend the day with Theo, waking up naturally, wandering off in search of coffee and a pastry and ideally stumbling across some sort of an antiques treasure-trove. I’d like a middle-of-the-day bath, and maybe in a dream world we’d be in a hotel and have room service for lunch in robes, then we’d wrap up warm and head out to a gallery followed by drinks and dinner with friends.

Explore Studio Bust here.

Images via @studiobust.