Mask: Crowned

This lovely thing only need two tiny touches and it will be done. What do you think?

Work in Progress — Greens

This is what I started today. It isn’t dry yet, so I am not sure how the colors will turn out. And, how I feel about the colors will determine how I finish the piece. Also, the top is mulberry paper and I don’t know if it will survive being peeled off the form. So many what ifs…. I can’t wait to see how it will turn out. I love making faces, they are always a surprise.

Mask: Brassy Eyes

Sunday we drove to the next town over, to go to Hobby Lobby, which we’d forgotten is one of the rare stores that closes on Sunday. So we went to Hancock Fabrics instead; there’s no fabric where I live (not even in the Wal-mart). It was a good thing too, they were having a wonderful store wide sale and I came home with all the supplies and inspiration I needed.

I’d sculpted this face to make the Wise Wick mask you can view in my gallery and wanted to try to make another mask on the same mold. Well – it worked, sort of. The general shape came through, but not all the details. That’s okay though — wait until you see all the personality.

This is what the fabric looks like fresh off the mold. I usually wait until I see this to decide what the personality is going to be. The mouth appeared here much larger than it is on the original sculpt and the nose is a lot straighter too.

This is a result of not being pressed tightly enough into the form. I wasn’t disappointed though. This was a face that was going to have CHARACTER!

Lips… I had to start with the lips. Despite the nice heart shape that was present on the fabric, they were flat. So I pulled out the modeling past and the gold paint for some serious diva lips.

Check this out: 

I’d already purchased brassy looking buttons for the eyes and wild ribbon for the hair. All the tones work perfectly together.

…

When it came time to sew the eyes on things began to unfold a bit. I knew that the shape and ideas had come together too easy; something had to happen. And then, with the eyes in place the structure fell out of the fabric and I might as well have been holding a deflated balloon. It is much harder to put shape back into a face once the trim has been added, but I gave it my best shot. Carefully, I painted the back of the mask with a new coat of fabric stiffener and the re-press it into the mold. I knew that I was going to lose some detail, but I wasn’t sure how much. HOURS later, I popped the thing back out, and to my shock and amazement everything worked.

So what do you think of Brassy Eyes, the diva? (either that or even she’s startled she came back out of the mold alive) I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

All photos copyright Anna Marie Catoir, 2010