Big scary mask!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_recoil/]

My mom thinks she's from Africa or something and has some sort of fetish for tribal masks. I found a really gorgeous one while shopping in the french quarter with my boyfriend, alas it was 600$ and I prefer having food/water/a place to live, so I made it, or a version of it



First I sketched it out. I've been sketching things out a lot lately. The finished mask didn't end up looking anything like that but it was nice to have something to reference.





I started off with a plastic mask form that I got for like 3$ at Joanns



after some trial and error i developed a faux wood technique. It's covered in several coats of poured on Poly-resin, hence the brilliant sheen



punched some holes in the head (before the resin because it's rock hard afterwards)



Tied on bunches of rafia using slipknots.



then i tied the hair up so i could...



bead a collar/necklace. It's seed beads, bugel beads, paua shell, crystals, chinese coins, assorted trinkety things from the boss' bead bag on FMG


close up of the mask itself



finished view



another finished view. The rafia has lots of little beads tied into it, some gemstones and wooden beads as well. It's not totally done yet, i'm waiting for a piece of leather to be delivered to line the inside of it, to hide the mechanics







packed up in the box

all closed up and adorable


My website was supposed to be opening today (grrrr) but hurricane Ivan sent all my little worker bees scattering across the south so it's been put off for another week or so.

Thanks :)!
--Adam