New mask designs!

Green Man!

Water Dragon!

I have two new mask designs available on my website! 

Water dragon...

Sketched design

Traced onto leather...

All cut out! 

Adding the detail.

Moulded! 

I should be painting this pretty soon. I'll also have the design available in my webshop alongside the fire dragon design already available.

Feel free to post suggestions for design to my Facebook page or, if you want something custom, you can order it through my website.

Amazing mask tool!

When I first dove into leather mask making all the people in the instructional videos I was watching talked about having a plastic face mould for shaping the masks with. They proported that they were 'cheap and available at all major craft stores'. As is sometimes the case this was better rounded out with '...in the USA'. 

As soon as I began collecting supplies for my new-found and rapidly favourite new art project I discovered that a hard plastic flat-lying face was not to be sourced in the big smoke, nor anywhere else on the island, the neighbouring continent or indeed anywhere outside of the US of A. By the time I did finally find a source that shipped outside the US it was the sort of 'international' shipping that actually meant 'We also ship to Canada'.

Fortunately I happen to spend a lot of time in Canada what with my family and most of my favourite people residing there, so over Christmas I ordered some of these elusive items to be delivered to my parent's house.

Well I FINALLY got to play with them! And the result is amazing! 

Gone are the days when I applied a piece of leather that had recently been immersed in extremely hot water directly to my face to fumble blindly over it in a mirror at close range because one can't wear glasses when one is moulding leather with one's face.

Observe! A wonderful tool to increase my productivity and significantly lower the stickiness and risk of burn that previously plagued my mask making.

All ready for immersing with the semi-eerie white mould awaiting

Ta da! It's the simple things in life that bring me joy

Oh yes, and if you like these masks and you want to support an artist (because contrary to popular belief, we do like eating) you can buy them through my site! 

Butterfly mask

I've done a butterfly mask already but wanted to do a slightly different design for it to provide a bit of variety. The butterfly design is interesting because it's one where the actual template is quite easy but the labour comes in when tracing it out and especially when painting the details of the lines. 

I'm really pleased with both the butterflies I've created and when my masks are officially available for sale (VERY soon!) I am happy to customize the colour according to what my customers want. So this is just an example of one I could do. Obviously any butterfly (or moth) can be made and I'm quite eager to work with people in creating custom designs that mean they'll have a one of a kind creation that speaks to their personality. 

The initial tracing results. 

First coat of blue - wasn't the right intensity for me though. 

Much better!

The final product! 

Made to order. :) 

Pixie!

Well, here it is in all its glory! The bits I've shared over the last month of wings and mask-making come together in one fabulous Pixie King costume. 

Thanks to my brother for some helpful photography capturing the entire outfit. 

The finished mask - did a little selfie. 

Do not mess with the Pixie King.  

Happy Hallowe'en!

Tomorrow is Hallowe'en!

As a Canadian this holiday is a significant on in my social calendar. If I were in Canada I would most definitely be attending a party - possibly two - and decorating wherever I lived with all the fake cobwebs and Jack o'Lanterns I could afford.

This year I've got a few commitments that came up so my day will be less about the holiday and more about collecting people from the airport, feeding them and seeing off a dear friend at their leaving do.

I will almost definitely be wearing one of these:

Sketch...

Cut out...

Mould...

Paint...

Add details...

Finished!

Holiday

I'm going on holiday!

So my brain is a bit focused on that right now as I fly tomorrow.

In the mean time, here's a selection of finished masks that will soon be available to purchase!

'Copper Dragon'
I'll be doing this same design in different colours and also come up with more dragon design, for sure. 

'Silver Point Tabby'
Inspired by my fur-sister when I was growing up. Again, soon to come in multiple colours. 

'Peacock'
Had fun with this one. More Venetian mask inspired than the others. 

'Butterfly'
Again, to be made in many different colours.
I think I'll also do a few different butterfly/moth designs. 

Even MORE masks in the making!

Sketch of a mask idea.
I used the template from my dragon mask for this. 

All cut out! 

Impression for my wolf mask! 

Impression for a fox mask... with ears this time! 

All cut out and ready for stamping and moulding. 

I'm really loving the entire process of mask making. I've got several templates I feel really confident in and I've been taking suggestions on my Facebook wall for new ideas. I'm definitely keen to try a panda, puma and snake. At this rate I'll need a new sheet of leather to work with. 

I've discovered I prefer the thick stuff over the thinner stuff because even though the thinner stuff is easier to cut and mould I love how solid the thicker stuff feels when it sets at the very end. 

I'm now in the process of building up some stock and will be sorting out pricing soon so keep watching my blog, website and Facebook and Twitter. I'll soon have these available!

Experimenting

When I purchased my leather tools I also ordered a new chunk of leather as the first piece I ordered was nearly used up. I went with the recommendation of the supplier this time around and got a slightly thinner piece. 

This was my first mask using the thinner leather, which is more pliable to begin with. I'm a bit dubious about it though as the thicker stuff, whilst more challenging to cut and a bit more difficult to mould, feels really solid once it's dry. 

I'll continue experimenting but I feel like the thinner leather is probably better suited to smaller, simple just over the eye masks whilst the thicker stuff will hold up better with more elaborate pieces. 

Regardless, I'm quite looking forward to finishing this particular mask. 

Drawn out my pattern on paper. 

Traced the pattern onto the leather

Cut out and carved 

Moulded!

More mask making!

My last mask making tool arrived on Thursday last week! I spent the evening carving, shaping and moulding masks. I managed to get five cut out while I was waiting for my final supplies. My intention had been to power through and get them all done by the end of the weekend. That didn't quite pan out but I have finished two of them, which also means my dad's birthday gift is done! 

The Green Man mask I've been posting about on Facebook is the big secret I alluded to in the post I wrote for his birthday. 

I'm so chuffed with the final result of both masks. 

Dried and ready for painting!  

Convenient that both masks required the same green.
The one on the right is a Peacock mask. 

Finished the Green Man first. Really, really happy with it.
I'll definitely use this template again. 

Carried on with the detail of the feather on the Peacock mask. 

And then painted the whole thing blue - of course. 

Ta da!

Pixie King!

I have a Pixie King costume I made for Hallowe'en a few years back. I'm pretty happy with it and at the time I wore a latex mouth and put on pointy ears to give myself pixie features. I really wanted wings for the costume too but at the time I didn't really have a plan or the time to make them so I just went with a tail and painting stripes on my outfit. 

So recently I decided to finish off the pixie costume and because I wanted to play around with leather I thought I'd make a mask to go with it too - as an experiment. As you saw in my last blog post, I ended up doing a fox mask at the same time and in the end that was the first one I officially finished. 

I finished my pixie mask a few days later and it is definitely not the shining success that the fox was as I think I cut the entire thing a bit crookedly. But it it was still a really good first attempt and one that has prepared me for more ambitious leather masks including things like horns, ears or spikes. 

The initial sketch indented into the leather and ready for cutting. 

All cut out! Looking at it now I can see how I didn't get both sides even. 

Moulded around a plaster casting of my face, starting to dry. 

The fox and pixie, all dry and ready for the dye! 

All the videos I watched said to dye the leather masks
as the dye helps with hardening. I went with a tan dye and
didn't cover it evenly because I knew I'd be painting over it. 

Left the dye to set for a day and then painted it blue! 

Done!

In good time I'll have a shot of the entire costume with wings included.
My first attempt at wings has proven problematic because they were simply too big.