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Edit (2007) : I never let go of maskmaking - if anything I've become more obsessive, and if you like you may view the results of that here. I now work almost exclusively in leather, because the technique listed here was miserable for me, which is what the (much older) edit below states. It may work better for someone else, though, and people still seem to drop by this page - that's why I've added it to my new site. My original reason for writing this page, like so much of my old personal website, was so that I wouldn't have to keep repeating myself and that I could tell the story with pictures (I never mention it here, but the reason there are no in-progress shots of the boyfriend's mask is because I did that in a rush in the three days prior to prom - it took so long to hammer the technique out in the first place that I had very little time left and spent it working rather than documenting the work.) For those who came here to learn to make a mask - as I mention below, it was never my intention. I don't really recommend it. I've been working on finding ways to explain my technique in leather, but I stumbled into all my maskmaking techniques myself - if I'd learned them anywhere they'd have been a lot easier to describe. The tissu mâché technique described here has clear steps - wireframe, cloth sculpt, paint - but leather really doesn't, and the steps often bleed into each other. But if I ever do figure it out, I'll write it all into a page form, preferably with some illustrations, and see what benefit anyone derives. Now, on with the original show. Edit: I'm going to preface this page with a note to the reader. When I added the link to my procedure here to a LiveJournal community I didn't expect half the response I got, and I can't begin to express the gratitude I have for all the critiquing and suggestions people left. But having gone through the process of making these masks, I feel it's only right to warn the reader that this was not originally intended as a tutorial. Art is not a science to begin with, but when you list a procedure and can't even duplicate the results yourself, it's kind of a sign that perhaps your modus operandi needs a little work. Please feel free to experiment with my technique, and good luck with it (although if you come up with a more functional variant, I want an eventual email telling me what you did,  My veritable obsession with masquerade balls came rather suddenly after a drawing of a masked dancer in the summer of 2004. The fact that my senior 2005 prom was themed a Masquerade Ball didn't help that, but I got art out of it.
What I really wanted to do was buy a leather mask - specifically one of Cheryl Mandus' masks, because I had a sort of fey thing in mind. There's actually a great deal of thought behind that, and if anybody ever asks or I feel the inspiration I might write about it in my livejournal and link to that entry here. The issue was, fairly-priced as her masks are, they're way out of my price range- I didn't have $200 to go spending on her Nocturne, so I went the other direction. I made one.  I started doodling some designs in my computer on my own face. I liked the idea of a butterfly, although rarely had I seen it done well. When I draw, I tend to do smooth, curved, flowing lines, and so that's what went on the photograph - and I found I had a shape I liked. For some reason, I picked up some scrap wire that had been laying around in the junk drawer since I could remember, and started bending it into an outline (about 1 1/2 hours). I boned it in the next day and finished the wireframe (5 hours). Then I cut up an old tee shirt, soaked it in glue, and draped it over the frame, a cloth mâché. So the materials cost was null; all this would cost me would be my time and effort. By this point I'd begun designing masks for my boyfriend, as well, drawing on his photographs on my computer, coming up in the end with three primary designs - a rather menacing raven, a more abstract demon, and a dragon. I also began work on some simple domino masks, although those came to less success in the end.  I continued to sculpt and rework the fabric as I rewet it and added glue. On more than one occasion I had to sit with the mask and hold it in a specific position, or correct its position again and again - rather painstaking and tedious work. Eventually I added a second layer of fabric, and had to tool this to the correct shapes as well, mostly with my hands and the needlenose pliers I used in making the wireframe. I had to cast the antennae separately, because of the angle - I needed the "back" of the antennae (the inside) to be at a 90° angle to the back of the face. This resulted in the mask - lovely in the face - appearing comically rabbitish from most angles until I was able to cast the antennae, although once the cast was done the mask began to look fairly complete, albeit white.  I finally pulled the wireframe out of the casting, which I'd long since realized would be necessary due to the great thickness of the many wrappings around the bridge of the nose, which all the 'veins' of the mask and the eyes all radiated outward from. The casting wasn't stiff enough, and another coat of glue threatened to ruin it. So I made another frame out of a heavier gauge wire, which ran only through the antennae and the longest tines of the 'wings', and fit my head like a circlet. I'd included a piece in that frame that could function as an attachment point for a baton, a handle traditionally used in some Venetian masks, although that later failed somewhat - the mask was too soft to support the baton without bending.  Once I'd tweaked the wireframe to a sturdy, appropriate shape, I stitched it carefully into the mask - no easy task, when the cloth is not only stiff, but the needle must puncture glue. I broke a needle on the second mask I made, for my boyfriend. I sewed ribbon in for the tie (I'd wanted to be able to alternate between use of the baton with the ribbons hanging free, and tie fastening, to keep my hands unoccupied for dancing), and finally the mask was ready for painting.  I spent a week or so designing the paint scheme. I'd waited on painting the mask (although I had a vauge sense of the colors I wanted) so that I could buy my dress and paint the mask to match. My dress, as it turned out, was burgundy, amythest and a dark green, so I went from azure, purple and jade metallic paints into a radiating design, and used a dark gold for accenting on the veins. Five hours of painting (and yet another viewing of "Labyrinth") and I was finished with the 30-hour project. My boyfriend's mask took only a little less time - closer to 25 hours, thanks to the monochrome and the rush I was in, although a good portion of that figure was spent simply forcing needles through the leather ties to bind them on. The full project, then, was close to sixty hours, and exhausting - I was awake until 3AM the night before the prom, and woke up at seven to go back to faire to get my shoes. Ack. But if you look at the final result... I believe the effort was worth it. Two views before the prom: -Link | |||||
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