Masks
Right, as promised, lots of photographs from my mask-making weekend!
First things first… templates
Firstly, I cut a few basic shapes in one go (subsequently altered the eyes on most of them, as these seemed too small), so that I could practice each skill repeatedly.
Then I gave one of them big sad eyes and decided to try out a cut-work design with tears and such.
My cutting technique isn’t stirling just yet!
By the second cut-work piece, I had realised it was best to do the inner cut-work first. Duh… Also, the first cut-work piece had made me think that a vaguely Egyptian style would be nice. And by “Egyptian”, I mean in the sense that someone who knows next to nothing about Egypt, such as myself, would look at it and go, “oh, that’s kind of Egyptian, like heiroglyphics!” – more accurate descriptions would be appreciated.
Anyway, I liked this one so much, that by the third cut-work piece I wanted to do something even more odd, so I extended the design to cover most of the face. I was trying to imagine re-visioning a veil as a mask (playing with that concealed/revealed dichotomy that we all love).
Then it was time to do some forming. I knew my polystyrene head would come in useful eventually :-D
With the last piece, I had wanted to curve the top part back over the head, but soon learnt that the leather isn’t that malleable. I would have had to significantly cut through the design. So it is instead standing up like a crown. Which then made it seem very familiar, so you can probably guess which Gaultier garment I’ve had lodged in my head for the past couple of years!
Some Decorating
I made a ribbon detail…
…and lots of mess.
For this batch, I have been playing mostly with boot polish of various colours and it’s worked quite nicely. Having been coloured, buffed, buffed again, and lightly dusted with a leather protecting spray, the colour is quite nice and shows no signs of rubbing off. The masks do smell of boot polish right now, but it’s fading. Buffing all this leather made me want to go to a stables and do some saddle-soaping.
First Finished Mask
Click above for a larger image.
And here’s the inside:
This piece is potentially for the friend who gave me the excuse to try mask-making, if the colours are right for her. She requested browns and blacks, with ribbons, feathers and some other kind of detailing. I’ve laid on some beaded black lace for surface texture, and put a diamante in the ribbon flourish for a little bit of sparkle 
There is also a larger version for her boyfriend, which will be completely plain (shades of brown and black only). So the two should make a nice contrast, since this one is so decorative.
Adrienne Descloux
June 19, 2010 9:54:pm