Maskmaking at Sans Souci Studios

Eyebrows

2011-10-14T11:34:00.000-07:00

Last month, evil little voices began whispering in my ear and telling me that the deer mask needed big, bushy eyebrows. I stood firm and didn't give in, as next they'd be asking for hairy ears, but I did begin to wonder, maybe the eyebrows did need *something*. Here's the mask with the eyebrows in question:

The first thing I did was to print out the above photo and sketch over the then-current eyebrows with a blue highlighter, to see more clearly what I already had (below.) First thing I noticed was that the eyebrows were asymmetrical. Not that that's a big issue, I think most eyebrows are asymmetrical, but it gave me a place to begin my explorations.

Below, two sketches with symmetrical eyebrows, one with the "left hand" style of eyebrow, and the other with the "right hand" style. I didn't like either of these.

Maybe it was the smooth, unwrinkled skin on the forehead between the eyebrows that was bothering me? I tried sketching wrinkles in between the eyebrows, but I didn't like them either.

Not sure where to go from here, I decided to hit the books. Below is one of my all time favorite reference books in my mask library. It's informative, easy to use, and beautifully illustrated.

Below are illustrations for the muscles responsible for thunderous eyebrows, the corrugator (the two little arms over the eyebrows) and the procerus (the muscle over the nose.)

Below, the actions of the corrugator and the procerus illustrated. To quote from the above book, "...the eyebrow lowers, especially the inner third...The eyebrows move closer together. A cashew shaped lump appears at the inner end of the eyebrow, with a curved, vertical crease along its inside edge (a), the "frown line". A small, crescent shaped dimple appears (b), above the middle of the eyebrow. This is where the muscle attaches to the skin and so becomes a low spot when the muscle contracts......"

I decided I needed to work on my (a) frownline and my (b) dimple. (I toyed with playing with the (c) vertical fold over the eyelid and the (d) hollow at the inner corner of the eye, but that would have meant changing the shape of the eyes more than I wanted to.) So I resculpted the eyebrows and went from this:

To this. I've emphasized the dimples and clarified and moved the frown lines more into the center. I've also tried to show how the muscle pulls the skin and bunches it up over the nose, spending many hours making faces at myself in the mirror and examining the wrinkles to do so!

Below, a picture of the entire mask with its new eyebrows. I really like how the pattern of wrinkles in the center of the forehead echoes the shapes of the tines over them.

Now, I am really and truly in the home stretch with this mask. With any luck, my next post will show pictures of it finished!

Uniporn

2011-09-14T11:29:00.000-07:00

Yup, that's my mask. I sold it to a nice gentleman from Lightborne Studios ( http://www.light-borne.com/) in Cincinnati back in May. I have to say, this video came as a bit of a surprise. I've been puzzling over the path my artistic offspring has chosen, and wondering if my parenting skills were too strict, or too lax, or *something*. I mean, we've gone from this:

To this:

Where did I go wrong??

In any case, it gave me a smile!

Vermont Open Studios & The Flood of 2011

2011-06-16T08:25:00.000-07:00

Here is 48 Franklin Street in Barre, Vermont, the home of Sans Souci Studios, with its cheerful yellow "Vermont Crafts Council Open Studio" sign greeting visitors in the front yard. Our visitors were down a wee bit from last year and here's why.

On Thursday, May 26, I went to my "day job" (which usually I do at night) as an on-call residential counselor for young adults with mental health and substance abuse issues. It was starting to thunder and lightning when I drove a group to an acupuncture session in Montpelier, and while I waited in the car, half inch hail began to fall. I drove the group back through torrential rain and when I got back to work, was told that a tornado had passed within a few miles of the facility. One of my coworkers asked if I wanted to stay until the rain subsided a bit, but I wanted to get home in time for my daughter's storytime. We were, after all, reading Harry Potter! The water on the roads was like nothing I had ever seen before, but I made it home safely.

On Friday, May 27, the last day before Open Studios, I woke up to learn that my daughter's school had been cancelled and to find three inches of water in the basement. This made me very crabby. Of course I had left all sorts of Open Studio tasks to the last minute, and I really didn't want to spend my day entertaining Isabelle and bailing the basement out in addition. Then I went online to check the news. I discovered that something like five inches of rain had fallen in two hours the night before. All but two roads in and out of Barre had been closed due to flooding, and several had washed away. Several hundred people had been evacuated from their homes during the night. Property damage would eventually amount to 6 million dollars, with around half a dozen homes being condemned and 70 to 80 percent of the trailers at a local trailer park rendered uninhabitable. Suddenly I didn't feel quite so crabby anymore.

Below, downtown Barre as the flooding began, and beneath that, route 302 just outside of Barre early the next day. (Times-Argus pictures.) Half of one lane of 302 ultimately washed away.

Open Studios looming or not, I had to take a break to walk downtown and see what had happened myself. Below, a tractor clears mud from the intersection of route 302 and 14, while a vactor suctions out a storm sewer.

Below, the National Guard directing traffic around a flooded area, with dust blowing in the background. I was really struck by the dust- when all that mud dried, it turned into dust and blew away, so that Barre was a perpetual sandstorm for the next several days.

Below, a car stuck in a sinkhole in downtown Barre. (Times-Argus picture.)

The week after Open Studios I had the insatiable desire to see the damage to roads I drove on routinely, so I would park my car at the "Road Closed" sign and walk to the washed out area to take pictures. Below is Muddy Brook Road, partially repaired, where I often drove to take Isabelle to school. If you look closely you can see a section of yellow-striped pavement turned perpendicularly to the rest of the road by the force of the water.

Below, a picture of Muddy Brook Road I found online (not sure who took it) taken the morning after the flood.

The road most relevant to me, however, was route 14 between Barre and East Montpelier, as this is the way I drive to work, and the way I had come home the night of the flood. After parking my car at the "Road Closed" sign and walking a loooong way in the heat, this was my first sight of the damage.

I got closer so I could begin to see the culvert the workmen were replacing.

And then when I got closer still, I could appreciate that this hole, even though the workmen had been dumping truckloads of dirt in it nonstop for a week, was still deep enough to fit my entire house.

OK, ladies and gentlemen, the moral of this story is, never drive in water running over the road in a flood. You can't tell how deep it is or even if the road is still there under the water. I got lucky, and I feel more than just a little queasy thinking about quicky the road washed out after I'd driven over it. Below, pics of route 14 right after the flood. (First pic from an unknown web source, the second from the Times-Argus.)

So, until next time, stay safe and well!

Almost There

2011-04-14T11:55:00.000-07:00

The deer mask is almost there! Here it is in its current state. As you can see, the mask has more detail and a smoother surface texture than it did in the previous post. I made lips, eyelids, wrinkles, etc with a layer of Paperclay, and filled smaller irregularities with a layer of Polyfilla. Both of these materials sand beautifully, and the Paperclay can be carved, albiet gently, with Dremel alumium oxide grinding stones, on a low speed.

Below, the mask with initial applications of Paperclay and Polyfilla.

Below, with eyebrows and other details sculpted in, and antlers removed. Due to the complexity of their shape, the antlers need to be removable and replaceable for both moldmaking and casting.

At this point, I decided I didn't like the ears, and started resculpting them. I wanted the base of the ear to be longer and thicker, the tips to be thinner and more refined, and the openings to be further away from the head.

Below, the antlers in their newly removable state, attached with screws. You can see the scorch marks from the Dremel from when I cut them off initially. The ears are also more refined.

Next step, to get the antlers on straight and even again! Somehow the antler on the right side has sagged noticeably in this process, sigh.

Good thing I get so much moral support from studio assistant Ezzy.

Deer Antlers, Part 2

2011-03-19T06:44:00.000-07:00

Here's the deer mask back in June. I felt pleased and thought all I needed to do was smooth and refine the antlers a little.

Ha, ha.

While I worked on bunny masks and looked at the deer mask just sitting on my workbench for the next several months, I realized the distance from the center of the mask to the tip of one antler was almost twice as far as to the other. Some asymmetry in deer antlers is to be expected, but not this much. Not cool.

So I cut the antler between the innermost and the three outermost tines and rotated the whole thing out a little. Not surprisingly, while the tip of the antler is more properly positioned, the tines are now tilted too far back. I stapled wads of tinfoil to the antler to use as an armature for new improved tines.

Then I took a photo of the mask, which I printed out and folded in half to check the relative positions of the two antlers to each other. The bottom edge of the left hand antler obviously need work, but otherwise, so far, so good.

Then I covered the new tines with Celluclay, cut off the old ones, and refined the rest of the antler a little bit.

I got rid of the lump on the underside of the left hand antler and...

OMG! How could I not have noticed before that the tip of the right ear is at least a half an inch higher than the left ear?? So I carved the bottom edge of the antler up a little...

... and brought up the edge of the left ear.

And here's where we are for the moment.

But wait, look, the second outermost tine on the right hand antler is about an inch longer than its conterpart on the left.... AAAGGGGHHHH!!!!

SPA "Celebrate!" Member Show 2010

2010-11-17T10:56:00.000-08:00

Once again I will have several masks on exhibit at the annual Studio Place Arts' "Celebrate!" members show in Barre, Vermont. The show runs from November 17th through December 31st, the opening reception being held on Saturday, November 20th from 4 t0 6 PM. There will be birthday cake as this is SPA's tenth anniversary! I'm planning on bringing a 2 1/2# shrimp ring myself, but if you want any you'd better get there early or I'll eat it all myself!

The White Rabbit mask above will be one of the masks I'll have at SPA. The White Rabbit has been keeping me busy for this entire year with commissions and such, who would have guessed rabbits would be so popular? It probably has something to do with Johnny Depp and that new Alice in Wonderland movie (haven't seen it yet). Friends also tell me that steampunk is all the rage now, so costumes that have a vaguely Victorian flavor are in vogue. Especially rabbits in waistcoats, apparently.

Studio Place Arts is a community center for the visual arts that has operated in Central Vermont for the past ten years. Located in a building that was once considered a "blight spot" in downtown Barre and nearly torn down, SPA now houses numerous artists' studios, holds eclectic art exhibitions and offers a wide range of arts and crafts classes to the community. For hours and more information, please visit http://www.studioplacearts.com./

Hope to see you there!

OMG! It's the KILLER FROG!!!!!

2010-11-17T07:59:00.000-08:00

Killer Frog is a local legend. He was a Christmas gift to Isabelle from her great aunt Margie, a beautiful enameled rhinestone-studded frog-shaped jewelry box that developed an insatiable appetite for Playmobil people. He was also the inspiration for my husband Brian's Halloween costume this year.

It was interesting to turn a noob loose in my studio and see what they would do with my methods. As can be seen below, Brian first sculpted a frog mask sketch on the miniature armature, and then the actual mask sculpture on the life-sized armature.

Being the devoted spouse that I am, I positive-cast and assembled the mask for Brian, and he painted and finished it. Here he is modelling it wearing his very appropriate "Get Green" painting shirt. You can tell from the fangs that he's Killer Frog and not, say, Toad from The Wind in the Willows or Toad or LeFrog from Flushed Away.

And in other news, we've had some personnel changes here at Sans Souci Studios. Here is our new kitten and administrative assistant, Ezzy, whom we adopted for Isabelle's birthday at the local animal shelter. As you can see he's already getting into the swing of things.

And on a more solemn note, our own black Halloween kitty, Skimble, shown sitting with Isabelle below, passed away suddenly but peacefully in a favorite sunny spot a week ago. She had been a stray with many old injuries, and I guess her body was just too worn and tired out to go on anymore. She is badly missed.

Positive Casting a Rabbit Mask with Celluclay

2010-09-01T06:06:00.000-07:00

Usually I make masks by negative casting, that is, casting *inside* of a mold. But since I've been getting requests for rabbit masks faster than I can have a mold made, I've been making them by positive casting, ie, casting them *outside* of a form, in this case the original plasticene sculpture. Here's more about this method.

First, I liberally apply Vaseline to the sculpture as a release agent. Then I mix Celluclay (a kind of commerial paper mache pulp) and roll it out into approximately 1/8" thick sheets between two pieces of wax paper. These I put into the freezer for 8 minutes to make them less sticky and easier to work with, and then I peel the wax paper off and apply the sheets over my sculpture. I blend the edges of the sheets together and smooth out any major lumps, but otherwise I don't fuss too much over the texture. It's much easier to deal with after the Celluclay is dry.

The cast will need to be cut into pieces in order to remove it from the original sculpture. After I apply all the Celluclay, I make score marks along the parting lines with a clay tool. Otherwise, the Celluclay would be very difficult to cut apart when it is dry.

Then I set the mask in front of a fan to dry. Usually after an hour or two the Celluclay will start to feel leathery and I'll be able to add a little more detail back in with a wooden clay tool. After a day or two it is usually dry enough to remove from the sculpture.

Here's the beginnings of the cast, with the score lines pressed in:

Here's the cast with one of the pieces removed and the original sculpture showing underneath:

Here's all three pieces removed from the sculpture, ready for assembly:

At this point speed is of the essence. I reassemble the pieces as quickly as possible, as if I leave them for any time they will warp out of shape and not fit together well. I make holes along the edges of the pieces, lining them up with each other on either side of the seams. If the pieces are still a little damp I can make the holes with a bamboo skewer, if they've dried more thoroughly I'll need to use a drill.

Then I tie the pieces together using twist ties (I save these compulsively) and apply glue all along the seams:

I dry the cast on a wig stand or stuff it with wadded up newspaper to help it keep its shape. Then I fill in the seams and any thin spots with more Celluclay and let it dry again.

After I've gotten a sturdy shell on which to build, I begin to add texture and refine detail, both by adding back on with wet Celluclay or by carving with a Dremel. Here's the rabbit mask with the beginnings of hair texture, created by adding a thin layer of wet Celluclay and working it with a wooden clay tool:

Here's the mask hairier and more refined. The brown marks around the eyes are scorch marks from the Dremel.

Hairier and more refined still:

Then painted and finished! The Celluclay will need to be sealed before it is painted, as it will absorb humidity and warp like a son of a gun otherwise. I brush on a layer, inside and out, of slightly diluted Weldbond (a kind of waterproof PVA glue) to do this.

As you can see, in a positive cast, much of the original sculpture's surface detail (hair, wrinkles, etc) is lost and needs to be added back in. How much detail is lost depends on the material used- a lot with Celluclay, but less with leather and other types of paper mache. In a negative cast, surface detail is preserved by the mold. This is the major reason why I use molds to reproduce most of my masks. However the fur texture on this mask is fun to create by hand, and I play with the original rabbit sculpture a little every time I make a new positive cast, mostly tweaking its fit. Positive casting also allows me to go more quickly from an original sculpture to a wearable mask, since there isn't the intermediary step of having the mold made. Plus, it's always good to have more than one tool in the tool box!

Summer 2010: The Battle of the Basement

2010-08-31T08:27:00.000-07:00

Who would guess that beneath the idyllic exterior of Sans Souci Studios would lie these scenes of horror?

This is my basement. The table in the third pic is my workbench. The cobwebs and white powder all over the table is paper mache dust from my dremelling. This mess has not been cleaned for nearly THREE YEARS. This, needless to say, was one of my major projects this summer.

There was one major obstacle and one major incentive to cleaning the basement. Here's the obstacle:

This is the electric bamboo bike my husband has been building. It lives next to my workbench, and its parts are often scattered among my tools. I would need to pick them up in order to clean my workbench. In a fit of wifely pique I have not touched them, and in a state of husbandly obliviousness the spouse hasn't either. This stalemate lasted for two years. (For more about hubby's bike building adventures, visit idledad.blogspot.com)

Here's the incentive:

This is Skimble, who as a stray suffered severe abuse. She has a huge bald scar on her back from where kids poured boiling oil on her, and she has an inoperable smashed hip, presumably from being kicked or hit by a car. The long and the short of that is, her rear end hurts her all the time. She associates her litter box with pain and does not like to use it. Either that or she just has a bad attitude. In any case, when I cleaned the basement I found she had peed on 1) rope 2) sponges 3) work gloves 4) insulation scraps 5) packing peanuts 6) cardboard boxes and (drumroll please) 7) the snow shovels. One major incentive for cleaning the basement was a much better smelling work environment!

I did make one major materials-related discovery- paper mache dust, like cat urine, glows purple under black light. So, unless the spots were also still damp and smelly, I couldn't be entirely sure if they just needed sweeping or blasting with Nature's Miracle. I wound up washing the entire floor. I figured after three years, it wouldn't hurt anyway.

The Elkha Fall/Winter 2010 Catalog

2010-08-25T07:53:00.000-07:00

Here's a use for my masks I hadn't imagined before! The following are pictures from the 2010 fall/winter catalog of a boutique men's and women's clothing label called Elkha, based in Melbourne, Australia. The deer mask is an earlier, unpainted version of the one I've been working on this summer.

I love the way masks seem to take on a life of their own and do things I never would have guessed they would once they leave my hands! That's one way that to me, masks are a particularly alive form of art.

For more information about Elkha, click here

Antlers

2010-06-22T09:27:00.000-07:00

I have been working on the antlers for my deer mask for the past several months, in particular on attaching them in something less than a ridiculous manner. In my mind, a deer mask is largely an excuse for a human to wear antlers, so the antlers must look good. If the antlers look "off" the whole mask will look wrong.

(Gratuitous cute pic alert!!) I started making my antlers by tracking down this set of real whitetail antlers in the wilds of eBay. Whitetail antlers in particular are more on a human scale, as opposed to say, mule deer or fallow deer antlers, which can be huge. I made a paper mache version of these antlers by taking a positive cast of them in Celluclay. (For more about this method, see this post here.)

I also needed plenty of reference photos, for which this book (found on the clearance table at a local bookstore) was my main source. The picture on the cover is particularly helpful. (Gratuitous factoid alert- I also learned from this book that antlers are the fastest known growing tissue in the animal kingdom, growing at a rate of half an inch a day.)

And here we have the first attempt to attach the cast Celluclay antlers to the mask. If you compare this photo with the photo on the book above, you can see that the two short tines in the center of the rack are too short, spaced too widely and make too much of a "V" shape. You can also see that the two main beams are too horizontal. In the reference pic above, the beams are more vertical and have a gentle, shallow "C" shape.

Attempt number two. Here the beams are more upright and starting to take on some of that "C" shape, but the tips are too close together, nearly meeting over the center of the mask while on the real deer, the tips line up roughly with the middle of the ears. The ink sketch superimposed over the photocopy demonstrates this.

Attempt number three. The two middle tines have been lengthened and straightened, and the right hand antler has the "C" shape I've been trying for. However, two of the tines of the left hand antler are too short and straight, and something very funky is going on with middle of the beam. The photocopy/ink sketch of the top view shows that the curve of the beam needs to be tightened, and the end needs to move forward.

Attempt number four. I've lengthened and curved those two short straight tines on the left hand antler. I've also started to tighten the curve of the beam of the left hand antler, particularly towards the back of the mask, but in doing so I have once again moved the tip of the antler too close to the center of the mask. As the top view photocopy/ink sketch shows, it needs to be moved out again, and perhaps shortened.

And, here is the mask in its current state. At this point I'm happy with the overall look of the antlers, though the left hand antler has some weird lumpiness going on that needs to be addressed. Next I need to define and refine the mask's overall texture. Then, off to the moldmaker!

(Gratuitous factoid alert- on a trip to Wikipedia to check that my antler terminology above was correct, I learned it is now believed antlers act as parabolic reflectors, vastly improving the hearing of their wearers. I'm not kidding. We'll see if paper mache antlers can do the same!)

Open Studio Wrap Up

2010-06-16T07:58:00.000-07:00

The Vermont Crafts Council Open Studio Weekend is over and done for another year! I enjoyed meeting all the visitors to my studio, artists and families and customers alike.

The above is a photo of me that appeared in the Sunday, May 3o edition of the Times Argus for Open Studio Weekend. (Looks like the clay sketches are thinking about taking on the photographer.) There was also an interview with me about Open Studios in the May 20th edition of the Montpelier Bridge, you can read it here: http://www.montpelierbridge.com/May20-10Bridge_1-14.pdf (You'll have to cut and paste this address into your browser, as this link is giving Blogger fits. My interview is on page 6.)

And yes, of course... the winner of this year's Mask Giveaway was Richard Andrecen of Hinesburg, VT! Congratulations! The mask is already on its way!

The 2010 Open Studios Weekend Mask Giveaway!

2010-05-14T07:07:00.000-07:00

I will be giving a mask away again this year for The Vermont Crafts Council Open Studio Weekend! To have a chance at winning a mask, you can either visit in person on Open Studio Weekend and sign the guestbook with your name and address (I have to have a way to contact you if you win!) OR sign up online to either Follow my blog or suscribe to it via Feedburner. Current blog Followers, Feedburner suscribers, or people on my mailing list are already automatically entered! I will draw one name at random on June 15, 2010, and the winner can have thier choice of one of the two masks pictured above (or similar).

Good luck and looking forward to seeing you!

All Species Day 2010

2010-05-07T06:23:00.000-07:00

I've been quiet on my blog lately, holed up in my studio working on the deer mask and trying to attach the %&$#@!!! antlers in a somewhat less ridiculous fashion. Fortunately the junior maskmaker at Sans Souci Studios has been more visible.

Here is Isabelle modeling the jaguarundi mask that she and her father made together for this year's All Species Day. Incidentally her stuffed kitty "Sneeky Peeky" is dressed up as a person.

Jaguarundi? It's a South American wild cat. Isabelle is way into cats, and we're guessing she likes the way the word 'jaguarundi' rolls off the tongue.

All Species Day? It's a yearly pageant held on the first Sunday in May, put on by local artists and consisting largely of young kids wearing homemade animal masks and costumes marching from Hubbard Park to the lawn of the Capitol Building in Montpelier.

And, as you can see, the occasional grownup dressed as a Na'vi.

Ooops

2010-04-29T06:26:00.001-07:00

Whoops, I realized I entered in LAST YEAR'S dates for Open Studios- the dates are in fact May 29 and 30, Memorial Day Weekend! Pardon my brain cramp there!

Vermont Crafts Council Open Studio Weekend 2010

2010-04-27T09:34:00.000-07:00

Sans Souci Studios will again be open to visitors for the Vermont Crafts Council Open Studio Weekend this year, on May 29 and 30, 2010, from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Come learn about maskmaking methods and see finished masks available for sale!

The Vermont Crafts Council Open Studio Weekend was named one of Vermont's Top Ten Summer Events in a competition held by the Vermont Chamber of Commerce in 1997. Nearly 300 artists and craftspeople in all imaginable media from across the state participate. The Vermont Crafts Council publishes The Vermont Studio Tour Guide, a free map booklet with directions to over 260 participating sites, which is available at Vermont Information Centers, from individual studios and galleries, and by request. Additional information about Open Studio Weekend can be found online at http://www.vermontcrafts.com/ or by calling the Vermont Crafts Council at 802-223-3380.

Hope to see you there!

SPA Member's Show 2009

2009-11-11T11:42:00.000-08:00

Once again it's time for the Studio Place Arts' annual Member Show, and once again my masks will be there for your viewing pleasure. The show is from November 17 through December 31, and the reception is on Saturday, November 21, from 4 to 6 PM.

Studio Place Arts (or SPA, as it's known to its friends) — is a community center for the visual arts that has operated in Central Vermont for more than eight years. Located in a building that was once considered a "blight spot" in downtown Barre and nearly torn down, SPA now houses numerous artists' studios, holds eclectic art exhibitions and offers a wide range of arts and crafts classes to the community. For more information about SPA, please visit http://www.studioplacearts.com./

On a side note, I scared my poor cat Teaze half to death getting ready for the show. She came tearing in from outside, already terrified of the vactor cleaning the storm sewers outside, and encountered the wolf mask on the floor in the foyer, on its way out the door to the show. She screeched to a dead halt, froze in place with all her hair standing on end, and then turned and went shooting upstairs. She was anxious about coming in the door for the rest of the day. While I feel bad for her, I think it was quite an endorsement for my mask!

White Rabbit Mask Commission Part 2

2009-10-21T09:22:00.000-07:00

During our last thrilling episode, our bold heroine had just finished a mask sculpture in a blazingly fast twenty one hours. Tune in this week to see if she can actually make a mask before Halloween!

I positive cast the mask in Celluclay over the plasticine rabbit sculpture and let it dry with the help of a fan. Then I cut it off, reassembled it, filled the seams and added the hair texture with more Celluclay. I just got a new batch of Celluclay and don't know if it's because it's been reformulated or just because it's fresh and new, but it was so much smoother and took texture so much better than it has before. (For more about positive casting, see this earlier post here)

Here is the mask with texture freshly applied. The hair on the nose and muzzle looks rather schnauzer-ish, so I later sanded it down.

Here is Brian the hapless hubby modelling the mask with the flash going off in his eyes. I've tamed the hair texture somewhat, as well as sanded down the eyes, the nose, and inside of the ears. At this point I deemed the mask was ready for paint!

The customer sent me this wonderful traditional Aurthur Rackam illustration for ideas for colors.

I love this color scheme, with the creamy/yellowy white, the sepia undershadings, and brownish/reddish eyes and nose. That is one seriously wierd looking bunny though!

And.. (drumroll please).. the finished mask!

I added just a tiny bit of metallic copper paint to the irises, so that the eyes will flash when the customer moves his head. Overall I'm really pleased with how this mask came out.

And... as an added bonus, this is the only Sans Souci mask to date that is really two masks for the price of one. What a deal!

White Rabbit Mask Commission Part 1

2009-10-21T05:52:00.000-07:00

A challenge! A customer asked me if I could make an Alice in Wonderland White Rabbit mask for Halloween. I had only a month, and I usually need around a hundred hours to finish a sculpt, often more, and at least twenty or thirty to make an actual mask. I really didn't think I had time, but I had also wanted to make a rabbit mask anyway and see if perhaps, in the two or more years it's been since I've started a new sculpt, I'd become more proficient. So I took it on.

First, I made a clay sketch on a miniature armature, to get a basic idea of masses and shapes without having to shove around pounds of plasticine. I then used this little sketch as a reference for the full sized sculpture.

Here we are fifteen minutes into the big sculpt, and Arnold the Armature is picking up your signal loud and clear. Those little bitties on the sculpting table in front of him are snails, frogs and slugs that Isabelle sculpted after sneaking into my studio one day.

End of Day One. The armature is covered and the resulting lump is somewhat rabbit shaped.

End of Day 2. Looking a little more rabbit shaped. The little clay sketch I made at first is visible in the background.

End of Day 3. Ready for liftoff! Muzzle and brows have also been refined.

End of Day 5. Per customer's request, ears restrained, cheeks narrowed down and eyebrows refined some more. At this point I am pretty much satisfied with the sculpture.

During this project I discovered some amazing new time saving sculpting tools- the digital camera, the scanner, the printer and my lightbox. At the end of each day I would take pics of the mask, print them out in black and white, and sketch changes over them I'd want to make the next day. This helped me stay focused and saved hours of needless fiddling.

These are two sketches I did to show my customer ideas for new ears and cheeks. He opted for ears somewhat between these two possibilites.

I also found that if I took pics of the mask on one side and then kept the tripod and the stand in one place, I could spin the stand around and get a picture of the other side of the mask that when flipped over, would line up very closely to the first. Then I would print out both pictures, trace around the major lines in red, flip one picture over and then lay them down on my lightbox to see any significant differences between the two sides. This was very helpful if one feature looked "right" one one side but "off" on the other, I could tell right away what the difference was.

A pic of the right hand side of the mask, outlined in red, with an area from the left hand side superimposed in green over part of the ear.

A pic of the left hand side of the mask, outlined in red, with an area of the right hand side of the mask superimposed in green over the eye.

So I had a sculpture I liked after only twenty one hours of work, which is far as I'm concerned is unprecedented.

Next, casting and painting the mask!

New Cat Mask

2009-10-04T12:26:00.000-07:00

Finally, a new cat mask in my Etsy store! I am extremely pleased with this mask. I used Titebond III Ultimate Wood Glue, a kind of waterproof wood glue, for the first time when I cast this mask. I had bought cases of Weldbond Outdoor Wood Glue which much to my displeasure went bad in storage, so I had to run out to the hardware store to try whatever outdoor wood glue they might have on hand- and it might have turned out to be a very fortunate thing! The Titebond is very, very thin and watery, which might seem like a disadvantage but... it was not necessary to mix it with any water to cast with it, so I got next to no warping. The three pieces of the mask dried fairly true to shape, all the seams went together well, and there was much less refinishing work than usual- hurrah!

So I believe my store is relatively well stocked for Halloween. Now I just need to decide what I'm going to be when I go out trick or treating!

Sans Souci Studios in Japan!

2009-09-17T12:42:00.000-07:00

I was thrilled to recieve these pictures of my masks from a customer at the Design Festa in Tokyo this past May!

It was a particular thrill for me to have masks in Japan, as I am learning to speak Japanese (as of today, on Unit 20 of Pimsleur Japanese II!) and a huge anime fan (just finished Death Note, great show!) According to my customer, the Design Festa is held twice a year and is one of the largest arts and crafts shows in Asia. To learn more about it, check out this website: http://www.designfesta.com/index_en.html

What I Did Over Summer Vacation

2009-09-03T08:15:00.000-07:00

My focus this summer, whenever I could get into my studio, was to try build the stock back up in my Etsy store and replace the five masks I sold recently: one for use in the dance festival in HI(see previous post); one for use in a music video in NY, and three for use in a culture festival in Tokyo. Here are my efforts so far.

This cat mask will be my last mask made of Celluclay. I had to try Celluclay just one more time, and I found that not only are Celluclay masks heavier- this mask weighs in at two pounds, over four times as heavy as the same mask made of paper strips and glue- but they don't really take all that much less time to make. Because it's so heavy I offered it for sale at a significant discount in my Etsy store. Maybe I should have offered it at less of a discount, as it's on its way to a new home already.

I love this unicorn mask. I confess when I first got this white Kanekalon hair I thought it was so ugly I stuck it in a cabinet and left it there for years, but I love the way it looks here, that stark flossy white contrasting with the pearly white of the head. I'm tempted to keep this mask.

And here we have Sneer, my grinning wolf mask, with a cool punked out new 'do. The long mixed black and red hair is commerical hair used for extensions; the short black hair represents my efforts to make peace with my new sewing machine and learn to weft hair myself. For those of you who are dying to learn to weft your own hair (or just figure out what the heck that means) check out this very informative article: http://www.nonidolls.com/weft.html

To tell the truth, it was amazing I got anything at all done this summer, considering this was going on outside my studio window through much of it:

It was almost impossible to concentrate with the backhoe working mere feet away and the entire house shaking. But,contractors who previously wouldn't even return our calls were lining up to give us quotes and schedule dates to start work on our long neglected front stairs and retaining walls, so we finally got that work done. I guess the McMansion market has dried up a little.

Before pic:

During pics:

After pic:

I am very happy with how the work came out.

It was also amazing I got any work done given the number of wonderful, refreshing trips we got to make this summer, not that I'm complaining! We went to the Sterling Renaissance Festival in NY:

And to the Cape:

Doesn't my hair look positively carnivorous in this pic??

And also on a camping trip in Groton State Forest here in VT.

So now that I'm all relaxed and refreshed and have a newly renovated house to work in, it's time to get back in my studio! Next on the to-to list is another cat mask to replace that one that just sold. Until next time!

Sans Souci Studios and the PUJA Gods and Monsters Dance Concert

2009-07-01T12:08:00.000-07:00

Willow Chang http://www.willowchang.com/ and Passport Productions presented the annual PUJA Gods and Monsters dance concert on June 6 and June 7 at the WCC Paliku Theatre in Kaneohe, HI, which included performances by Anasma from France, Meissoun from Switzerland, Eduardo Rodrigues from Argentina as well as an appearance by Sans Souci Studios' wolf mask "Sneer"! I was just thrilled to pieces to have had my work included in this performance. I think right now I'd consider it a high point in my career!

Check out photographer Joe Marquez' beautiful pictures of my mask in the performance:

http://www.thesmokingcamera.com/puja_dance_concert_2009/h1f5b0887#h1f5b0887

The dancer wearing the mask is Eduardo Rodriguez from Argentina. I am just amazed at how his performance has transformed the mask into something so completely beyond what it was when it left my studio. Eduardo Rodriguez is currently on tour with Cirque du Soleil's Saltimbanco. To learn more about him see these articles: http://latinalista.net/honolulu/2008/10/cirque_du_soleil_honolulu_performance_fe.html and http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/saltimbanco/show/acts.aspx

Revisiting Celluclay with Isabelle

2009-04-23T16:58:00.000-07:00

First of all, I just have to get it out of my system... isn't Isabelle cute? She's so much bigger than the last time I posted her pics here.

Anyway. Isabelle has been coveting the new "Scrutinizing Eyes II" masks and has asked me repeatedly for one to paint. They take so long to make I hesitated to give her one, but then I figured it might be a good opportunity to try out some new casting methods I'd been thinking of. So for the first time in about eight years I cast masks with Celluclay, a commercial paper mache pulp.

Celluclay has one significant advantage of traditional glue and paper strip paper mache- it is about a thousand times quicker and easier to use. The glue and paper strip "Scrutinizing Eyes II" masks take 9 to 10 hours to cast and finish, but similar Celluclay masks takes about 3 to 4 hours to cast and finish. Theoretically, anyway, assuming the process results in a viable mask. Which in the past it hasn't.

There's been a number of reasons. First of all, I believed that Celluclay warps more easily than other kinds of paper mache. Now I'm not so sure that's true. Yes, some of the early masks I made with it did warp, but I've since learned things that could have prevented this. Such as, a paper mache mask that is not sealed properly will warp no matter what, and acrylic gesso does not seal anything, while Sculpt and Coat or diluted Weldbond PVA glue does. I've also learned that the shape of a mask will influence how it warps just as much as the materials it's made from, and some shapes just require special handling. (For more about this, see this post here: http://sanssoucistudios.blogspot.com/2007/06/mask-shape-and-warpage.html )

Another issue has been Celluclay's apparent inability to adhere to my detail coat of choice, a mixture made from Weldbond, Polyfilla and cheesecloth. (For more about my detail coats, see this post here: http://sanssoucistudios.blogspot.com/2007/04/yet-more-materials-experiments.html) But then came the big "duh" moment.. I was using actual glue- Weldbond, a kind of Elmer's on steroids- to adhere the paper strips to my detail coat, while I was relying on the dried powdered glue in the Celluclay mix to do the same job. I was comparing apples to oranges! What would happen if I used real glue?

So I cast two test masks. First I cast my detail coat into the mold and let it dry thoroughly. Then I thinned Weldbond with just enough water to make it mixable and added it to Celluclay, which I then used to fill the mold. Then I set it aside to dry, and waited, and waited. Then I remembered that Celluclay packed in thick layers in a rubber mold will NEVER dry. I put the mold under a fan and waited several days, and even then it only dried on the surface. When I finally demolded it, some of the surface of the mask stuck to the mold and pulled off. Paper mache generally doesn't stick to rubber molds, but it sure as heck will stick to a rubber mold better than it will to water! The damage was repairable, but it was still a hassle. Best to be avoided.

So for the next mask, I tried applying a layer of Weldbond over the detail coat, adding a THIN layer of Celluclay over that, letting it dry, and repeating this process about three times. I did not mix the Celluclay with anything other than water, as I didn't think I could handle the thin layers if they were too sticky. The mask dried fine in the mold, and none of it stuck to the rubber, but I did get a curious slight wrinkling effect on the surface. I suspect the Celluclay pulled at the detail coat and wrinkled it up as it dried. I haven't quite figured out what I'm going to do about this yet, if I'm going to worry about it at all- it is fairly subtle, and I suspect I could sand a lot of it out if I were motivated.

So in the end the Celluclay did not warp any more than the paper strips did, and ultimately it did adhere well to the detail coat. The biggest downside of Celluclay that I now see is its weight. A Scrutinizing Eyes II mask made with paper strips weighs only one ounce, while a similar Celluclay mask weighs three. Just for comparison's sake, a fairly normal pair of prescription glasses weighs one ounce, while the great big huge honking Coke bottle pair you will never catch me wearing on this blog weighs two. Still, it's possible for certain well-balanced, helmet-type masks that are inclined to stay on of their own accord anyway, that the Celluclay could work quite well.

So the moral of the story is that Celluclay is once again a possibility. Stay tuned!

The Other Resident Maskmaker At Sans Souci Studios

2009-04-23T13:25:00.000-07:00

I'll take a minute to show off the work of the other resident maskmaker at Sans Souci Studios, my daughter Isabelle, who is now five and a half. Here goes!

This is a rabbit mask.

And a kitty mask.

This is a scary ghost mask.

And here we have a horse mask. It's been strapped with curling ribbon.

Another kitty mask. Check out those eyelids and eyebrows- aren't they awesome?

And the piece de resistance, Isabelle's scary monster mask!

These do have a certain something to them, don't they? Isabelle often makes these for me when I'm grouchy and I need to cheer up!

The 2009 Sans Souci Studios Open Studio Weekend Mask Giveaway!

2009-04-07T13:34:00.001-07:00

I will be giving a mask away again this year for The Vermont Crafts Council Open Studio Weekend! To have a chance at winning a mask, you can either visit in person on Open Studio Weekend and sign the guestbook with your name and address (I have to have a way to contact you if you win!) OR sign up online to either Follow my blog or suscribe to it via Feedburner. Current blog Followers or Feedburner suscribers are already automatically entered! I will draw one name at random on June 15, 2009, and the winner can have thier choice of one of the two masks pictured above (or similar).

Good luck and looking forward to seeing you!

Sans Souci Studios Open During the Vermont Crafts Council Open Studio Weekend

2009-04-07T07:00:00.000-07:00

I will again be participating in the Vermont Crafts Council Open Studio Weekend on May 23 and 24, 2009, from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM. All are welcome to visit. Come learn about maskmaking methods and see finished masks available for sale!

The Vermont Crafts Council Open Studio Weekend was named one of Vermont's Top Ten Summer Events in a competition held by the Vermont Chamber of Commerce in 1997. Over 285 artists and craftspeople in all imaginable media from across the state participate. The Vermont Crafts Council publishes The Vermont Studio Tour Guide, a free map booklet with directions to over 260 participating sites, which is available at Vermont Information Centers, from individual studios and galleries, and by request. Additional information about Open Studio Weekend can be found online at www.vermontcrafts.com or by calling the Vermont Crafts Council at 802-223-3380.

Hope to see you there!

The First "Scrutinizing Eyes II" Masks

2009-03-28T06:10:00.000-07:00

So when I haven't been busy being a full time cat tormented mommy, I have been busily casting and painting the new "Scrutinizing Eyes II" masks. I finally have a few to show here.

So much fun to paint!!

These guys are a major pain to cast. Though the mold is small and there isn't a lot of surface area for me to cover, it takes me a looooong time to get the paper down into all those nooks and crannies and around all those little bends at the edges. It's very slow, meticulous work. It takes me seven to nine hours just to finish a cast and get it ready to paint.

I made one major refinement to my method as I worked on these. I sealed the edges of the masks with... coffee filters. Since the fronts and backs of my masks are made out of two different kinds of material, I had originally been reluctant to seal the edges with anything but glue, as I had thought any material that would match and blend in with one side of the mask would not with the other. But coffee filters are a truly miraculous kind of paper. When coffee filter strips are applied in torn strips and smoothed down with thinned down glue, they just... vanish. If they're applied well, it's almost impossible to tell they're even there, no matter what surface they're applied to.

Thanks Creaturiste for the tip!!

What I Did(n't) Do Over Winter Vacation

2009-03-26T07:35:00.000-07:00

I've been so busy with this that and the other thing that I realize March is almost over, and I haven't yet posted my annual "it's winter and I'm not getting a thing done" post yet. So, here it is.

Isabelle's winter vacation is always tough. I'm not able to work in my studio much at all during the day when she's home, so I try to work at night, after she goes to bed. Only problem is, THIS.

THIS being one of our cats, Rumpleteazer, aka The Teaze to her friends. Nighttime is HER time. After Isabelle goes to bed, she's used to sitting on our laps and getting lots of cuddles while we read or watch TV. In her mind, it is SO not cool for us to do anything else at night!

This is one of Teaze's usual bids for attention. Here she is, standing up on her hind legs and clawing my stomach while I try to work. Usually she claws my butt, but I haven't figured out a way to take a picture of that yet.

And here her bids for attention are escalating.

Oh well. I managed to work for a grand total of ONE HOUR while Isabelle was on vacation, and most of it was spent taking cat pictures. I suppose if I can think up some snappy captions, I could at least post them on icanhazcheezburger.com!

Sans Souci Studios, The Movie

2009-03-26T06:48:00.001-07:00

OK, the two minute TV clip actually, the one that aired last October. The link has expired at WCAX now, so I'm giving it a more permanent home here. So, for your viewing pleasure, here it is.

Vote for Me in the Etsy Mardi Gras Poll!!!

2009-02-20T10:27:00.001-08:00

I just got an email from Etsy this morning saying that one of my masks has been included in their "Carnivalesque How Do You Party?" poll. Please register or log in to Etsy and vote for the "Calico Cat Mask" (pictured above) by Sans Souci Studios! Voting ends 10:00 AM February 23, and winners will be featured in the Etsy blog and gift guides. If I had to look into my crystal ball and guess, I'd bet the rainbow colored beaded brassiere is going to be the winner, but I can always hope otherwise!

Vote here! Thanks!

A Sheep In Wolf's Clothing

2009-02-09T11:39:00.000-08:00

I had a mask on display in the world famous Shelburne Museum!

Well, kinda sorta.

This particular mask was purchased by Emmy Robertson to create a "Sheep In Wolf's Clothing" she planned to exhibit during The Green Mountain Rug Hooking Guild's annual show, "Hooked in the Mountains XIII: Expect the Unexpected", November 8 - 16, 2008, in the Round Barn of the Shelburne Museum. I was very disappointed that I couldn't see the show personally, as my daughter spent the night before the one day I could go throwing up all over everything in sight, but Emmy was kind enough to send me these pics so I could see the piece and share with you. Thank you Emmy!

For more information about the "Hooked in the Mountains" show, please visit www.gmrhg.org/site/hooked_8_show.html

The Shelburne Museum is a world famous museum of art and Americana located in Shelburne, VT. For more information please visit http://www.shelburnemuseum.org/.

Sans Souci Studios At Studio Place Arts

2008-11-10T06:45:00.000-08:00

It's beginning to feel (a little bit, anyway) like Christmas, which means it's time for the annual Celebrate Studio Place Arts Member Show! The show will run from November 18 through December 31, with the opening reception on Saturday, November 22, from 4PM to 6PM. Several of my masks will be included.

Studio Place Arts (or SPA, as it's known to its friends) — is a community center for the visual arts that has operated in Central Vermont for more than seven years. Located in a building that was once considered a "blight spot" in downtown Barre and nearly torn down, SPA now houses numerous artists' studios, holds eclectic art exhibitions and offers a wide range of arts and crafts classes to the community. For more information about SPA, please visit www.studioplacearts.com

Hours of operation will be:

November 18 through December 6, Tuesday through Friday 10AM to 5PM; Saturday 12PM to 4PM. (Closed for Thanksgiving, November 27)

December 8 through December 23, Tuesday through Friday 10AM to 5PM; Thursday 10AM to 8PM (late hours);Saturday 10AM to 4PM;Sunday 12PM to 4PM.

December 24, Monday, 10AM to 1PM

December 26 through December 31, Friday, 12PM to 4PM, Saturday 12PM to 4PM, Monday and Tuesday 10AM to 5PM, Wednesday 10AM to 1PM.

Hope to see you there!

Halloween At Sans Souci Studios

2008-11-03T06:43:00.000-08:00

We geared up our Halloween celebrations this year by going to "The Enchanted Forest" at Hubbard Park in Montpelier, put on by Montpelier Parks and Recreation. This consists of tours guided by costumed characters of different kinds of performances (storytelling, dancing, etc) staged in the woods. One favorite was "The Trolls", pictured above. I really wish I knew who did these masks! Next year, I hope to participate (or rather, volunteer Brian to participate!) as either a masked guide or storyteller. I'm putting it here so you all can hold me to it!

Isabelle's Wall-E costume. Brian made the gloves, Isabelle and I painted the box, and Isabelle did the lettering, made the green buttons, and colored the mask. After being accustomed to spending twenty plus hours on a single mask, it was very strange to make this Wall-E mask in about two seconds. As in, find an image online, enlarge it to the correct size in Corel-Paint, and print it out. Viola!

I wore the unicorn mask and Brian wore his suit and clerical collar from seminary. (Scary!) Isabelle didn't think it was fair that I had a unicorn mask and Brian didn't, so she made him this one. She explained to me that you wear it by holding it up to one side of your face, so that it doesn't cover your eyes and you can see well. Interesting design!

And here we are, just about go door to door! We went with two of Isabelle's friends, Zella (dressed as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz) and Mollie (dressed as a fairy princess) and their parents. Check out the scary graveyard in the background. This must be one of the only pictures in existence of me wearing one of my own masks.

So overall we had a good Halloween. There was the TV show, Halloween mask sales, featured spots on a couple of Etsy blogs and most importantly, fun going from door to door and getting way, way too much candy!

Five Minutes of Fame!

2008-10-20T06:25:00.000-07:00

My masks and I were on TV! The video clip can be viewed here:

http://www.wcax.com/Global/category.asp?C=74837&nav=menu183_8/

I've been letting the machine get a lot of my calls these days, thinking they're going to be those automated pre-election surveys or "important messages concerning my credit card account". Imagine my suprise when I found a message from a Channel 3 TV reporter asking to do an interview for a piece he was doing for Halloween! It aired Friday, October 17, as part of their regular "Made in Vermont" series.

The reporter and camera man came the previous Wednesday and stayed for about an hour filming and interviewing. They were very pleasant and easy to talk to, and I only felt like an idiot answering their questions about 30% of the time. It *was* a little wierd having to stick that microphone thingy down my shirt, and the fact the All Fired Up restaurant was busy burning down several blocks away *was* a little surreal. But overall I'm happy with the way the clip came out!

Check it out!

"Scrutinizing Eyes II" Off to the Mold Maker

2008-10-16T08:00:00.000-07:00

I have been working on this thing off and on for FIVE YEARS. I am so excited to get it done and have a mold made. I can hardly wait to cast up a bunch and paint them in fun colors!

A long time ago I read Karen Horney's "Neurosis and Human Growth" and brainstormed a series of masks based on the different types of neurosis she proposes. (Which are, for the record, narcissistic, perfectionistic, arrogant-vindicative, self-effacing,and resigned. In case you're interested, perfectionistic is my own particular brand.) From there, I played with the more general idea of anxiety caused by excessive self-examination and concern about the opinions of others. As in, OMG HELP THEY'RE LOOKING AT ME!!! From there, I made a Mardi Gras type mask, substituting the feathers with eyeballs.

I had imagined this to be a series of three masks, "Scrutinizing Eyes" (the mask pictured below for the open studio giveaway) being the first and this being the second. The third exists right now simply as sketches in my sketchbook. Hopefully I'll finish it in less than five years!

Ear Hair

2008-10-10T07:29:00.000-07:00

OK.... just for the record......I am so incredibly sick of.....EAR HAIR.

Maybe I should back up a little here. I have decided to try to sculpt and cast some mini-masks. I had been resistant to the idea when I was simply thinking of it as a way to add lower priced pieces to my body of work. Now it has much more appeal since I've been thinking of it as a way to try out ideas on which I may not have wanted to spend the hours and hours necessary to create a larger piece. So I started with these cat character sketches I've had knocking around ever since before I sculpted the large cat mask, "Sophia".

Above is "Nemo" in a early, rough form. The idea was for a stocky, staid British Shorthair sort of cat, one that looks a little like my brother's cat Nemo. When I first thought of this piece five years ago my brother's cat was a thoroughly middle aged sort, but now I'm afraid he's rather elderly! So this sketch began to take on a more grizzled, grandfatherly look, with the mustache, bushy eyebrows, and..... EAR HAIR.

So... I have been doing nothing but sculpting and resculpting ear hair for the past two weeks! It just refuses to cooperate! It's probably not too clear in the pics above, but they illustrate no less than FOUR different takes on ear hair. I've been driving my cats crazy following them around and looking in their ears!!

HELP I THINK I'M LOSING IT!!!!!

Dancing In the Streets

2008-09-04T11:16:00.001-07:00

And here we continue with the Sans Souci Studios Summer Reading List Extravaganza!!

I love Barabara Ehrenreich, and when I heard she had written a book about the decline of community festivals (and along with them, much in the way of masking traditions) in Western culture, of course I had to read it. Here are the ideas I found the most interesting.

Ehrenriech implies that there is an inherent contradiction in human society, that it is collective by nature, but as it becomes increasingly successful, it grows larger and larger until by necessity it splits into hierarchies. Then the upper hierarchies try to suppress collectivism in general as it can foment revolution and change. Festivals (especially masked festivals!) were a prime time for people to gather and plan all sorts of mischief, so the powers that be have been trying to regulate or do away with them altogether for time immemorial.

In this context, masks are subversive. They allow anonymity. Masks allow people to step out of their prescribed roles. They allow men to be women, beggars to be kings. Masks, through estatic ritual, possession, and trance (now how are those for scary words!) can afford practitioners direct contact with their gods, as opposed to through "belief" and "faith", or through the indirect mediation of priests. Masks by their very nature can defy the social order.

Now I really want to run off and catch the next performance of Bread and Puppet!

Stay tuned!

Masks Tell Stories

2008-09-02T10:20:00.001-07:00

This summer I read a great book about masks, "Masks Tell Stories", by Carol Gelber. It's aimed at older children, but it was thought-provoking for this middle-aged adult, too.

The most interesting thought that occurred to me after reading it was: Masks help make abstract ideas concrete, and bring them a place where they can be physically dealt with. With the aid of masks, ancestor spirits can walk among their people and remind them of the values of their community, and perhaps of the consequences of not being mindful of them. They can teach, protect, and discipline the children of the community. With the aid of masks, benevolent spirits can be cajoled for what a community needs and desires- good luck, good weather, good health, etc and chaotic spirits can be chased away. With the aid of masks, the spirit of the community, the place, or the time itself can become embodied and celebrated, such as we see now with Mardi Gras or Halloween.

However, with the overriding mind-body dualism of this Western culture (mind is good, body is bad) I imagine the idea of making an abstract idea concrete is viewed with much suspicion. Why ruin a perfectly good idea by embodying it? While I'm not advocating (say, for instance) foregoing modern medicine and returning to masked ritual to cure illness and so on, I do often wonder what our culture's dualism has caused us to throw away and lose.

In any case, I sincerely hope I will be able to explore these ideas more thoroughly in future work. Stay posted!

New Sans Souci Studios Etsy Store!

2008-06-26T09:06:00.000-07:00

The Etsy store is to replace my eBay store, which I have shut down. The fees on eBay were killing me! My eBay sales were covering the fees and nothing more. The fees on Etsy are much, much more reasonable. Once in a while, however, I may post a mask test or second on eBay, and will mention it here when I do.

Have fun looking around the new store!

Mask Drawing Winner!

2008-06-24T07:02:00.000-07:00

Renee Krug is the winner in the Open Studios drawing for the purple eye mask! Renee visited during the Open Studios weekend and signed up for a free suscription to our maskmaking blog. Thank you Renee and enjoy your mask!

Open Studios Mask Giveaway!

2008-04-05T10:17:00.000-07:00

We are giving away this mask to celebrate our participation in the Vermont Crafts Council Open Studios Weekend! All you need to do to for a chance to win is sign up for a free Feedburner suscription to our blog. Enter your email address in the Feedburner widget on the left, confirm your suscription in the email Feedburner will send you, and you're good to go! (If you are already a suscriber, you are entered automatically, you need to do nothing more.) We will draw the name of one suscriber at random on Sunday, June 15th, 2008, and send them this mask completely free and postage paid! There are no purchases necessary and you can have your name removed from the suscriber list at any time, just email us with your request. Good luck!

Welcome to the 2008 Sans Souci Studios Virtual Tour!

2008-04-05T08:22:00.000-07:00

As many of you already know, Sans Souci Studios will be participating in the Vermont Crafts Council Open Studio Weekend this year on May 24 and May 25. We realize many of you will not be able to make it all the way to Vermont, so we created this blog entry and video so you could join us online!

Here we are, me, my husband Brian Wightman, and my daughter Isabelle, cheerfully waiting to greet you by the door! (No, I don't remember what was so funny. I promise it wasn't you.)

Here are the two part time studio assistants, Skimble and Teaze, looking up to greet you as you come in (or at least, to see who disturbed thier nap!)

And here is our lovely abode. Sans Souci Studios is located in our home in Barre, VT, in a room that measures about 11 1/2' long, 9 1/2' wide, and 8' high. Have a look around, let me know if you have any questions and enjoy your visit!

First Unicorn Mask Completed!

2008-04-05T08:02:00.001-07:00

I've been working on this thing for a better part of a year. Part of the hangup was how to attach this somewhat oddly shaped mask to the wearer's head. I did a lot of experimentation buying and making hoods onto which to Velcro the mask, but found I needed to add straps to the base of the skull to tighten the hood for smaller-headed wearers. So I figured, if straps were needed anyway, why not just skip the hood?

So I went through a lot of gyrations just to be reminded of three basic principles of mask fit, which I was told practically first thing when I started making masks.

1) The mask must rest on the "third eye" of the wearer's head, at a point in the middle of the forehead a little bit above the eyebrows.

2) The straps must fasten at the wearer's temples.

3) The straps must tighten at the base of the wearer's skull.

The black browband I added underneath the mask allows the mask to meet all these requirements. It's also much cooler than the hood, fits more snugly, and makes the mask easier to get on and off.

So now I have a bunch of black vinyl Japanese Zentai hoods laying around I don't need anymore. Fetish clothing, to be exact. Maybe I can unload them on eBay, and let all those friendly neighborhood pervs drive up the traffic at my store.

This About Sums It Up

2008-03-15T06:06:00.000-07:00

It's been a really long winter. The weather has been horrible. There's literally been a snowstorm every three days for the past two months. This past week was the first week Isabelle has had since December without a school cancellation or delayed opening. So needless to say, I'm not getting a lot of work done.

I keep plugging away on finding a good way to attach the unicorn mask to its hood, and have rediscovered in the process that Velcro can only be sewn, not glued, on just about any substance. Forget special glues or extra strength Stitch Witchery. Well, one small exception here- industrial strength self adhesive Velcro will stick to vinyl, but since I haven't yet found a way to glue vinyl to anything else, I'm not sure this discovery is particularly useful. Oh yeah, and industrial strength self adhesive vinyl will also stick to polyester ribbon, but this isn't useful either- the Velcro will shred the ribbon in about five seconds trying to fasten and unfasten the straps. Bleah. I keep hoping to find a way to glue or stick Velcro to straps, because I can't sew to save my life. I usually manage to con Brian into doing all the sewing for me.

Believe it or not, Isabelle was laughing her head off all through the above photo session! She's a great actress, isn't she? Not to mention patient and helpful with the masks!

Sans Souci Studios Supporting eBay Boycott

2008-02-15T11:17:00.000-08:00

Sans Souci Studios will be supporting the eBay boycott from Monday, February 18 until Monday, February 25. I have closed the store for the week and will be listing no new auctions during this time.

If you don't already know, the boycott is in response to 1)increased seller fees (from 10% to 12% of the final value of an item sold through eBay stores) 2)the holding of seller's Paypal fees for 21 days in some circumstances and 3)the inability for sellers to leave negative feedback for buyers anymore.

I have asked eBay representatives under what specific circumstances Paypal payment will be held for 21 days, and I was told this is not yet clear. Where it will be harshest will be for small sellers with less than 100 lifetime feedback ratings. This creates a circumstance in which these small sellers have to ship the item without being paid for it, covering the shipping expenses out of pocket, and if the buyer initiates a chargeback during this time (claiming fraudulently "the item was not as described" etc), the seller could potentially be without the item, the payment and without a way of leaving negative feedback for the buyer, no recourse.

Sans Souci Studios is unlikely to be effected by this directly, but I don't know if I can personally support these policies. I'm taking a wait and see attitude myself, and checking out other possibilities for sales listings in the meantime.

Stay tuned, and I hope you support the boycott! No buying or selling on eBay from February 18 until February 25!

Mask Hairing Demonstration

2008-02-13T11:09:00.000-08:00

While I was getting this cutie ready for eBay, it occured to me I could snap some pictures and give a demonstration of my current method for hairing a mask. (This mask is available at auction on eBay until March 15, cheap because it's a materials test and too heavy to wear.)

Equipment and materials needed: Wefted and perhaps bulk Kanekalon hair in choice of colors; glue (I use a tacky white craft glue, others I've spoken to prefer hot glue); cotton swabs; wax paper; sharp scissors, a pencil, and a small container of water.

More on hair. I can imagine people out there scratching their heads and going, "wefted??" Essentially that means the hair is sewn onto long strips, which makes it much, much easier to apply. I've purchased just about all of my hair from African-American beauty supply shops, where it is sold as 'hair extensions'. I use the bulk hair for areas where I don't want the weft to show, ie, at and near hairlines, although I also use hair that has been cut from the weft on another mask during a bang trim or such. So far I have only found this hair to be available wholesale, so a wholesaler's number is needed to purchase it. However it is possible to buy repackaged (?) bulk hair for a somewhat greater cost from www.monstermakers.com.

So essentially I divide areas to hair into three parts: the back of the mask, where I can use the wefted hair; an area roughly 2 or 3 inches away from the hairline where I will glue loose hair; and any actual hairline itself, for which I will construct a little 'hairpiece'.

Here we see the mask looking something like a tonsured monk, with about half the wefted hair applied. Applying wefted hair is easy peasy. First I cut the weft to appropriate lengths. Then starting at the back of the mask and working forward, I apply a bead of glue to the weft and apply it in rows approximately 1 - 1 1/2 inches apart. Sometimes I'll need the hold the ends of the weft down for a few minutes until the glue starts to set, or worse comes to worst I'll reglue the ends down after the rest of it has dried.

In this picture I have applied all the wefted hair and am now gluing on loose hair. To hide the weft, which is convenient but rather ugly, I switch from the wefted hair to the loose hair about three inches or so from the hairline. I apply a bead of glue to the mask, and then I pick up small (about 1 inch wide) and thin handfuls of hair, trim the edge square with a sharp pair of scissors, and lay it down into the glue. Then I press it down using a damp cotton swab. When the swab starts getting too gluey and the hair starts sticking to it instead of to the mask, I throw it away and get another. It helps to have a small container of water and a big pile of swabs nearby before starting this task.

I am more likely to err on the side of making the handfuls of hair too thick instead of too thin. Too thick, and most of the hair will not stick in the glue, it will just come loose and make a mess. It is almost impossible to err on the side of making the handfuls too thin.

I make the rows closer together with the loose hair than I do with the wefted hair, about 1/2" apart. The loose hair has to be applied more thinly, so the rows need to be placed more closely together to cover adequately.

Above are a series of pics showing the creation of a hairline. I usually do this part first, before I do anything else with the hair on a mask, so that the pieces have time to dry and will be ready by the time I need them.

(First pic.) I trace the hairline with a pencil on a piece of wax paper, lay down a line of glue, and then press loose hair into the glue using a damp cotton swab. Again, if the swab starts to get too sticky, and the hair wants to stick to it instead of the glue, I throw it out and start with another. I let this dry until the glue is clear (usually overnight) and then (second pic) trim along the pencil line. After this I (third pic) very carefully peel the finished hairpiece from the wax paper, and (fourth pic) glue it in place.

Above is a pic of the nearly finished hairline in the front of the mask as well.

After the glue has dried overnight, I comb out the loose hair (there is always a lot of loose hair, don't worry too much about any shedding at this point) and then trim and style if I so desire. I put any big hanks of trimmed hair in a ziplock baggie to save for future hairing projects, and then to tone down any shininess, I color over the dried glue on the hairline with acrylic paint or a matching Sharpie.

There it is! Any questions, please feel free to drop me a note at info@sanssoucistudios.com!

New Calico Cat Mask to eBay

2008-01-25T08:00:00.000-08:00

Here's a link to the listing: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350018894234 Check it out!

Sans Souci Studios Joins Vermont Crafts Council

2008-01-21T05:36:00.000-08:00

Sans Souci Studios has finally joined The Vermont Crafts Council, which most importantly means that we plan to participate in the Vermont Open Studio Weekend, Saturday and Sunday May 24th and 25th, or in other words Memorial Day Weekend. Mark your calendars!

We are also included in their very nifty website: http://vermontcrafts.com Here's a direct link to our page: http://vermontcrafts.com/members/CRouillard.html

Dang, yet another graphic-less blog entry. I tried to download the very spiffy Vermont Crafts Council logo to post, but Windows Vista is incompatible with their version of Adobe Reader, as it is incompatible with about every other known program in the universe. For more about the joys of Windows Vista, please visit my husband Brian's blog: http://eugenefairfield.blogspot.com/2007/08/pros-and-cons-of-windows-vista.html http://eugenefairfield.blogspot.com/2007/08/windows-vista-update.html and http://eugenefairfield.blogspot.com/2007/09/more-on-windows-vista.html If nothing else, Windows Vista is fun to complain about.

Sans Souci Studios eBay Store Open!

2007-11-18T10:34:00.001-08:00

Actually, it's been open for a while, as you might have been able to figure out from the colorful link on the sidebar. But I wanted to make a grand announcement on my blog, so here it is. Check it out! stores.ebay.com/Sans-Souci-Studios

Once again I owe a huge thank you to my husband, Brian Wightman. He set up templates of the sales pages and showed me how to update them, which was no small task.

I also owe a thank you to artist Susan Greaves, who helped co-author "Internet 101 for Artists" (Here's a link to it on Amazon). She also has a page of tips for selling artwork on eBay www.susanfgreaves.com/especially_for_artists.htm which is in my opinion is more helpful and concise than the book. And besides, it's free!

Sans Souci Studios at Studio Place Arts

2007-11-11T12:34:00.000-08:00

Some of my work will be on display during Studio Place Art's annual Member Show, which will run from November 20 through December 29. The opening reception will be Saturday, December 1, from 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM. Studio Place Arts is located at 201 North Main Street in Barre, VT. For more information about Studio Place Arts, please visit http://www.studioplacearts.com/

The pieces I'm planning on exhibiting are shown below. All of them will be there, but not necessarily on display at the same time. I may also submit other work if I get my act together in time!

Hope to see you there!

Deer Mask Commission

2007-10-20T11:10:00.000-07:00

A gentleman from California asked me if I could do a deer mask for his Halloween event. Only problem is, all I officially have of this particular mask is a half finished prototype, and no mold. How do I make another like it? For the first time in many years, I revisited positive casting. No, postive casting doesn't have anything to do with the artist's cheerful outlook in the studio, but instead has to do with reproducing a form OVER a shape, instead of INSIDE of one. Here's a quick tour of the process:

Here is my prototype mask,carefully covered in tin foil and duct tape, aka Robodeer. The foil on the nose is slit because this picture was taken after the cast was cut away from it.

Here is the beginning of the positive cast, Celluclay rolled out into 1/8" thick sheets and pressed down firmly over the foil-covered prototype. Your basic generic ungulate at this point.

Frankendeer. The cast has been cut off the prototype and reassembled.

Here the cast has been carved and sanded down with a Dremel, and the antlers temporarily attached. The antlers are also a positive cast, from a set of real whitetail antlers.

And here we have once again my long-suffering husband, trying the mask on for size. The poor guy had started to go to bed when I finished strapping and padding the mask, which didn't stop me from trying it on him!

Overall I'm pleased with the way the mask came out, although I wish I had been able to get it smoother. Usually I would have added Polyfilla or Paperclay and sanded it down in order to achieve this, but because this mask was already so big and heavy I worried that adding anything else to it would make it so heavy as to be unwearable. First and foremost, it needed to be wearable.

Artist Statement Updated!!!

2007-09-05T12:33:00.000-07:00

I have finally rewritten my artist's statement after plugging away on the dern thing off and on for over a year. As you can see, I had a little help from our cat Skimble, shown above expressing her editorial opinion of a rough draft. Check out the statement here: http://www.sanssoucistudios.com/artist.htm

There's also an updated picture of my my fatter, grayer, nerdier self (yes, I really did wait until my favorite anime T-shirt was fresh out of the wash to take the picture) but you're going to have to go to the website to see it!

Next, eBay! Stay tuned!

Sans Souci Studios Website Updated!!!!

2007-08-12T11:31:00.000-07:00

Here he is, the man of the hour, my wonderful husband Brian Wightman busily adding a guestbook to my website while folding laundry at the same time! Yay! What a guy! It helps that he just graduated from his M. Ed. program and has a little more time now for this sort of thing. (Yes, that is a pile of freshly laundered boxer shorts under his elbow.)

Check out the new site! http://www.sanssoucistudios.com/

I haven't had much time to work on masks this summer while my daughter has been home from school, sigh. Yeah, I know, enjoy them when they're little. I did manage to write up that "summary" (ha ha) about what I've learned about paper mache casting over the past year. http://www.sanssoucistudios.com/casting.htm Next on my list of things to do is to rewrite my artist's statement and open an eBay store! I am really looking forward to having some sort of regular sales outlet for my masks. Stay tuned!

Isabelle and All Species Day

2007-06-20T10:49:00.000-07:00

All Species Day is a local holiday in the Central Vermont area, put on by local artists and consisting largely of young kids putting on homemade animal masks and costumes and marching from Hubbard Park down the main street in Montpelier. I personally haven't worn my masks in this celebration, as I want the focus to be on the work of the younger artist in the family! Here she is with this year's creation, a bear mask which her father helped her put together and she decorated. Last year she and her father made a sea horse mask. If nothing else, All Species Day makes for some great photo opportunities!

Mask Shape and Warpage

2007-06-14T11:15:00.000-07:00

As I've been casting different masks using papier mache strips, I've been noticing that the masks' overall shape has a lot do do with the degree to which they try to warp during drying.

Above I have posted pics of the backs and insides of a "Rip" mask, a "Rival" horse mask, and a little eyeball mask.

The "Rip" mask really wants to warp during drying. I believe it's because the mask has an overall cylindrical/conical shape with a wedge cut out of the bottom. I think papier mache strips tend to want to pull along curved surfaces as they dry. There is nothing to stop that pull along the bottom of this mask, so it warps. You can see that I wound up putting a triangular "plug" in the jaw to prevent this.

The horse mask "Rival" warps only a tiny bit during drying. I believe this is because the cylindrical/conical part of this mask is closed, and the open part on the bottom is circular. As the papier mache strips dry and try to pull, there isn't anywhere that they can move to. All the available space is filled.

The little eyeball mask does not warp at all during drying. It doesn't have much of a curved shape to it, and besides, it has 1/4" lip at a roughly 90 degree angle to the mask all around the edges. I believe the pull of the papier mache strips on this little lip cancel out the pull of those on main mask as they dry. This lip, while a tremendous pain in the butt to cast, also adds a lot of strength to the edges of the mask, which also helps to reduce the number of layers of paper I need to use.

In general, the more details a mask has (folds, wrinkles, bone structures, etc) the less likely it is to warp, as the details interrupt the pull of the strips as they dry. Conversely a smooth mask is more likely to warp, as little interrupts that pull.

Technicalities... but let me tell you, a warped mask is no fun!!!

First Horse Mask Cast!

2007-06-13T11:45:00.001-07:00

Whoopee!!!!!!

Now to work on a way of attaching it to someone's head! I'm imagining Velcro-ing it to a snug fitting hood of sorts. Time to cozy up to my friends who can sew!!!

Large Multipart Papier Mache Mask Casts

2007-06-13T10:39:00.000-07:00

I've spent the last month or so trying the papier mache strip method I'd practiced in my smaller 'eyeball' masks in larger, multipart molds. I've continued to use an initial detail coat layer of a Polyfilla/Weldbond mix, a second layer of cheesecloth with the Polyfilla/Weldbond mix, and subsequent layers of kraft paper and outdoor wood glue.

Some differences I've found in making small masks and large multipart masks this way:

1) I need to use much more care in the cheesecloth layer in a large mask than in a small one. There is more opportunity for overlapping layers of cheesecloth to build up thickness in a large mask, which does not contribute anything to strength, and can prevent the Polyfilla/Weldbond mix from penetrating all the way through to the mold. This can leave many pits and holes in the surface of the mask that will later need to be filled. I use extra care around deep and very detailed areas, and I try to overlap the cheesecloth just to be sure there is no gaps in coverage, but no more.

2) I need to use more layers of paper in large masks than in small ones. How many? It depends entirely on the shape and level of detail in the mask, with very detailed areas (wrinkles, lips, gumlines, etc) naturally being stronger and very smooth ones (cheeks, etc) being comparatively weaker. I still use only two layers of paper in areas with lots of detail, and up to ten in very smooth ones. I also use eight to ten layers of paper around the edges of the mask. A mask with enough layers will have only a slight amount of flex to it. I have found one sure way to know that I need more layers- if I put sealer on the mask, and it becomes limp and rubbery and then warps all to hell, I haven't used enough. Waaaahhhh!!!!!

3) Obviously, I need to join the pieces somehow or another. I'm not sure I'm done experiementing with this, but here's what I do now. I cast each piece of the mask seperately. I overhang the cheesecloth just a little over the edges of the mold and glue it down tightly, using a weaker glue such as Elmer's (no point in using a stronger glue which I'll just have to trim off later!) I do the same thing with one layer of paper in areas which I won't be able to reach into when the mold is closed (ears, tips of noses and lips, etc.) (You can see this cheesecloth edge in the pic of the unassembled mold above, and see the resulting "fringe" in the pic of the raw cast.) I have found, much to my great suprise, that this little edge of paper and or cheesecloth will not interfere with the mold assembly, as long as it is smoothly and tightly pressed down, and it is fairly easy to trim off afterwards with a craft knife. I then apply a bead of straight Weldbond to paper edges, a Polyfilla/Weldbond mix to the cheesecloth edges, clamp all the pieces of the mold together, and apply two more layers of kraft paper over the seams I can reach. Then I anxiously wait for the whole thing to feel dry, and unmold it!

In general, this method yields nice results. The masks are very light and strong, and the detail and finish are exceptional. The downside is that this method is extremely time consuming- it takes me fourteen hours to cast a "Rip" mask (the one shown above) this way, compared to eight for my infamous Paperclay slip/Sculpt and Coat method. I think the resulting quality is worth it, and I'm going to see if I can cut back on time spent elsewhere in production. I'm going to look into airbrushing, to see if I can spend less time painting!

Studio Hazards

2007-04-13T12:14:00.000-07:00

This is Rumpleteazer, or as her close friends call her, The Teaze. Not what one would usually think of as a studio hazard. However, I have learned to make sure that 1) she is fed 2) she doesn't want to go out and 3) she isn't particularly starved for attention before I do anything that's at all tricky in my studio, such as casting. Otherwise, I might be trying to carefully maneuver some gluey strip of paper into the tiniest point of a tooth or an eyebrow when she tries to yank a finished mask by the strap off the counter and onto the floor. Or, stands up on her hind legs and sharpens her claws on my butt.

Thou Shalt Not Fuss!!!

2007-04-07T10:52:00.001-07:00

The skies opened up, the angels sang hosannah and pronounced....

THOU SHALT NOT FUSS!!!!!!

Why this sudden revelation? Well, I took out the mask the "eyeball" mold was made from and compared it to my recent casts, and realized about NINETY PERCENT of what I had been filling in and sanding out as casting flaws were present on the original. The Weldbond/Polyfilla mix is picking up that minute a level of detail. I have posted a closeup pic of a raw Polyfilla/Weldbond mask above, showing just how tiny these flaws are, and by extension just how anal I can be.

I have decided that if I was OK with those little flaws on the original when I dropped the big bucks and sent it off to the moldmaker, that by dadgum I was going to be OK with those little flaws on the casts as well. I have made a solemn promise to myself that I will not fix any of them from now on.

Holy instant time savings, Batman!

Yet More Materials Experiments

2007-04-06T11:24:00.000-07:00

I continue to cast dozens of "eyeball" masks using variations on the good ol' fashioned paper strip and glue method of papier mache. (I'm up to my eyeballs in eyeballs..) I have come to the conclusion that this is simply the lightest, strongest method there is. Forget paper pulp and those fancy schmancy modern casting resins. Not to mention there's a certain kind of alchemy in the transformation of plain paper, something we take so much for granted, into a work of art.

However, this is still a more labor intensive method than most, and in an effort to save time and keep my prices down I have been experimenting with different materials for the detail coat, the initial layer which picks up detail directly from the mold. I'm hoping to get a mask that needs very little touch up, to save time on sanding, filling, repairing blemishes, etc etc.

Specifically, I have been experimenting with the following detail coats: 1) the chiesatine/cotton fluff method, as mentioned below; 2) thinned Polyfilla, reinforced after finishing with a brushed on layer of thinned Weldbond; and 3) a mixture of Polyfilla and Weldbond. I apply these into the mold and back them with a layer of cheescloth, glue and Polyfilla, and two or three layers of craft paper strips and glue. These steps are pictured above.

After much hurling and smashing of masks on the ground I have come to the conclusion that all these materials are more or less equally strong, AS LONG AS THEY ARE KEPT AS THIN AS POSSIBLE. Anywhere they build up to any thickness becomes a weak point, paper strip backing or no. Given that, the material which is quickest and easiest to use becomes the most desireable. For whatever reason the Chiesatine method takes forever, and the straight Polyfilla is too prone to marring before it's coated with Weldbond, which leaves the Weldbond/Polyfilla mix as the current champion.

Briefly, how I make the detail coat.. I thin the Weldbond down to the consistency of cream, and then use it to mix the Polyfilla into a thin, lump free, brushable mix. I test it on the outside parts of the mold rubber until I'm sure it's a good texture. If it's too thick, it has a ridgy, meringue like texture which will make the applications of the other layers unnecessarily difficult. If it's too thin, it will run and pool in the deeper parts of the mold. The right thickness will have relatively little texture and will stick on the vertical surfaces of the mold without slumping or running. Again, this needs to be applied IN AS THIN A LAYER AS POSSIBLE. I don't worry if this layer is so thin that it's somewhat transparent and I can see the orange of the rubber mold through it! The subesquent layer of cheescloth, Polyfilla, and glue will fill in any thin spots nicely.

When I've done a few more masks and worked all the kinks out, I hope to post in more detail about the paper strip paper mache method. Until next time!

Gratuitous Cute Pic Alert!

2007-03-12T07:57:00.000-07:00

Isabelle decided she really wanted to paint masks one day, so I dug up this old Aves test mask and let her go to it. Glad those Aves masks are good for something!

Cat Masks

2007-02-22T13:11:00.000-08:00

Here are pics of three finished "Sophia" cat masks, named partly for "Wisdom" and partly for my mother's much loved mini-van sized feline, aka Sof the Loaf.

I had way too much fun painting these. Again I got to use some Golden Acrylic iridescent and interference paint, particularly on the main part of the white cat and in the eyes of the black and white cats. I'm in love with that pearly white color!

Masks at the Movies

2007-02-22T12:47:00.000-08:00

Imagine my suprise when I was trying to unwind with a movie and not think about masks when I found the movie was actually about... MASKS.

I love Neil Gaiman. His Sandman graphic novels are some of my favorite books of all time. I also have a healthy respect for Dave McKean, one of several illustrators for Sandman. So I was pretty keen to see this movie for which Gaiman did the screenplay and McKean did the artistic direction. While it turned out that I was a little bored by the story, I though it was a real treat to see the masks designed by McKean.

Other mask movies. "The King of Masks", a story about a Chinese maskmaker in need of an apprentice, is one of my favorite movies of all time. I thought "Eyes Wide Shut", directed by Stanley Kubrick with masks designed by Guerrino Lovato (I took a class with him once!) was really, really, really, boring, although the masks were lovely.

However, I'm planning on sticking with anime for the near future for entertainment! Not that it's safe from masks, either, there was that vicious flesh eating Noh mask in "Inuyasha"...

"Scrutinizing Eyes" Masks

2007-02-22T12:17:00.000-08:00

Here are pics of the first few finished casts of what is officially known as the "Scrutinizing Eyes" mask. Unofficially, it's called "Paranoid Eyeballs". The gold mask is the finished "Chiesatine" paper mache mask that I posted pictures of earlier, raw and fresh from the mold.

I got to play alot with Golden Acrylics interference and iridescent colors painting these. Way, way, way too much fun!

It's important to me that the mask moves well with the wearer, and the shifting colors of the interference paints in particular add to the mask's sense of movement. Plus, I'm hoping that in some cases they can save me a little time (and thus, production costs) as they can give me depth and interest in the color of the mask without devoting hours and hours to layering, glazing, and shading.

The Winning Mask

2007-02-22T11:53:00.000-08:00

While I'm posting pics of my new masks, I thought I'd post this one of the "Rip" mask that won second place at "Face the Nation IV: A National Juried Mask Exhibition" at the Design Museum of the University of California Davis, January 2006. Here it is.

The first place winner was Ned Bear http://www.lib.unb.ca/Texts/QWERTY/Qweb/qwerte/ned_bear/ned.htm a First Nations maskmaker. I'd be thrilled to come in second to him any day!

The Attack of Shnozzola, or, The Practical End of My 35mm Camera

2007-02-22T07:32:00.000-08:00

My main project the past few months has been to try to take some decent pictures of my masks for my website and other promotional materials. I splurged and bought all the photographic equipment I needed (seamless paper, a seamless stand, a reflector, a diffusion umbrella, etc) and set up a lovely little photographic studio in the basement. And then, while tripping over tricycles and stepping in cat poop (every fifth day or so is Litter Box Optional day among the felines here, it seems) I took my pictures. And retook my pictures. And retook my pictures YET AGAIN.

Observe Exhibit A, pictures of a "Sneer" mask, above. The bottom pic is taken with the mask as close to the camera as possible. The top pic is taken with the mask backed off from the camera, and then zoomed in with the telephoto lens. I had read about distortion in photos of three dimensional objects when the camera was too close, but, wow. Needless to say, I had taken pics of all my masks with the camera nice and close before I noticed this distortion was happening, and needed to take them all again.

So my original plan had been to take a set of digital pics with my digital camera, and then take a set of pics on real slide film with my conventional 35mm camera. But my digital camera has the telephoto lens and the 35mm doesn't. I don't want to spend tons of money to get a new telephoto lens. More and more galleries and shows are accepting mostly digital submissions, and I wonder if the day isn't coming soon when slides will be obsolete. And until then, there are places that convert digital pictures into slides. So this may be it, the day when I put my trusty 35mm on the shelf and say sayonara.

"Chiesatine" Paper Mache

2006-12-12T10:45:00.000-08:00

This is my first attempt at "Chiesatine" paper mache, otherwise informally known as cotton-fluff paper mache, fresh and raw from the mold. I owe a huge thank-you to Mathieu Rene, a maskmaker based in Montreal, for emailing back and forth with me about how to do this. (His blogs: www.maskmaking.blogspot.com and www.creaturiste.blogspot.com.)

I have avoided trying the more traditional paper-strip-and-glue methods of paper mache as I didn't think they could pick up the fine detail (gumlines, wrinkles, etc) in my masks. I also felt they would probably be too time consuming for someone who already sinks 20+ hours into each mask. But then I was having trouble finding a material strong enough for the "eyeball" mask shown above- those fragile eyebrows would break as soon as I dropped the mask, no matter what it was made of- so I thought I would give this method a try.

I have to say, I am very, very, very, very impressed- and I mean VERY IMPRESSED- with how strong this mask is. Trimming it was next to impossible. As in, the Exacto knife couldn't touch it. As in, the Dremel could hardly touch it. As in, I had to keep turning up the motor speed, and changing the bits, and turning off the Dremel so that the mask could cool down and not catch fire, etc. Mathieu has told me that I didn't need to use as strong a glue as I did (Weldbond, a kind of white glue on steroids) so for my next attempt I'm going to try some version of Elmer's. But in any case, this mask can survive being dropped on the floor!

I am also very pleased with the detail in the cast. The fluff really did pick up all the little lines and edges quite well. The cast was also very true- no pinholes, blisters, cracks, etc, so unlike the Paperclay casts it required next to nothing in the way of repair. So while this method *was* quite time-consuming, I'm thinking it may take no more time than the Paperclay method, and it will yield a superior mask. I may even come out ahead since the materials are so incredibly cheap.

So very briefly, here's how I did this. First I applied a layer of absorbent cotton, purchased in a roll in a medical supply store, into the mold. I pressed it in firmly with a wet brush, removed as much water as I could with a sponge, and then painted in a layer of diluted glue. After that layer had dried, I applied a layer of cheesecloth, coated that with a layer of diluted glue, and then after THAT layer had dried I applied two layers of torn Kraft paper and coated those with the diluted glue.

I have yet to try this in a large multi-part mold. The big molds do sometimes seem to follow different laws of nature than the smaller ones. We'll see what happens!

Horse Mask "Rival" On the Way to the Moldmaker!!!

2006-12-12T07:36:00.000-08:00

I am so excited! The horse/unicorn mask "Rival" is on its way to the moldmaker's, Campbell Plaster and Iron in Rutland, VT! I started this mask over five years ago, I'm so happy it's finally finished. I've posted three pics of it above. Two in its final state, one with the horn and the other without. One in an earlier state (ie, with ginormous ears) showing how it will be worn. The finished production castings will have long luxurious manes and will be attached to a hood, which will fasten under the wearer's chin.

Aves Products and Maskmaking

2006-11-20T11:14:00.000-08:00

Well, I have concluded my experiments with Aves products and maskmaking, at least for the immediate future. As a last step, I turned over my Aves Paper Mache/Fixit Paste mask to my Materials Testing Department, aka my three year old daughter Isabelle, and it survived the experiment just fine. Un/fortunately, with all the collections of this that and the other in the house, Isabelle has learned to be very gentle with things so I may have to take a turn beating on the mask myself and see what happens.

I tried casting "Rip" masks in both unadulterated Fixit Paste and a combination of Fixit Paste and Aves Paper Mache. I've found that these masks come out to be about twice as heavy as the Paperclay/Sculpt and Coat masks, which with a mask the size of Rip is wearable but not at all comfortable. (The Paperclay masks come out to be about 8 oz, the Aves masks come out to be about 1 # 4 oz.) It's possible these materials might still have uses in smaller masks, where twice the weight may still not make a noticeable difference.

The Aves Paper Mache (and a similar product, Aves Clayshay) casts like an absolute dream, very easy to handle with no warping or shrinking, though the raw cast does have a lot of pinholes that need to be filled. Unfortunately the Paper Mache (and Clayshay) is much too fragile in the thicknesses required from maskmaking and unless it is reinforced with another material, falls completely apart during demolding. The Aves Fixit Paste is much stronger, but is more difficult to use, having the resemblance that it does to taffy left in a rear windsheild on a summer day. It also does not adhere well to vertical surfaces in a rubber mold, so it pools in the bottom, making for a cast very uneven in thickness. It can be cast over an initial coat of Paper Mache, which helps with this issue somewhat. In my experiments it tended to have fewer pinholes than the Paper Mache, but the ones it has are much more difficult to fix, since the Fixit Putty used to fill them is trickier to handle.

I also tried Aves Apoxie Paste, which is a little cheaper and adheres better to vertical surfaces. When dry, however, it has an unfortunate resemblance to dried snot, not at all what I want my masks to feel like! It's interesting, I hadn't thought of disqualifying a material because of the way it's *felt* before.

Oh well. I was hoping that the decreased casting time for these materials might translate into fewer production hours per mask, and thus lower prices. Since it is very important to me for my masks to be comfortable to wear, however, I think the extra weight disqualifies these materials from extensive usage on my part.

Paperclay/Sculpt and Coat Slipcasting

2006-11-01T11:26:00.000-08:00

Well, here is the most current method of casting masks at Sans Souci Studios. In general it yields good results. The top pic shows the occasional mess up. This mask is too warped and wrinkled to bother finishing. The bottom pic shows a better than usual cast, nearly perfect, with just some blisters on one side of the muzzle and some missing tooth tips to repair.

So here's what I do. First I make a slip out of Paperclay. (Paperclay used to come in a prepackaged slip form, but it's been discontinued. I never got to try it.) I cut the Paperclay up into 1/2" cubes, place it in a plastic container, pour some water over it, squish it up with my fingers or mash it with a potato masher and then let it sit overnight. If the slip is still too thick the next day I add some more water and repeat the process. Sometimes it takes a few days to get the Paperclay a consistency I like.

I find it useful to have Paperclay slip of several consistencies handy. A slip the consistency of pancake batter is best for the first few layers of a cast, since it sticks to vertical surfaces and captures detail well. A slip the consistency of mashed potatoes is best for the subsequent layers of a cast, since it allows thickness to be built up more quickly. It is also useful for filling in big holes and divots in a finished cast. A slip the consistency of heavy cream, applied with a paintbrush, is good for filling in tiny airholes in a finished cast.

Paperclay slip stays fresh nearly indefinitely, as long as it's kept in a sealed container. Why? I don't think I want to know.

In case you're wondering, I use polyurethane rubber molds with plaster mother molds. I do believe slipcasting is *usually* done in plaster molds, so I thought I should mention this!

I don't use any release in the mold whatsoever when I slipcast with Paperclay, I want that stuff to stick! I've gotten some pretty lumpy, wrinkled casts out of molds that have been treated with release, as the pic above shows. It's helpful to wash the living daylights out of these molds- plain old dishsoap works well.

I apply a first layer of the pancake batter slip with a chip brush, dabbing it along the upper edges of the mask and letting it run down into the lower parts. The thinner this first layer is, the better- it really only needs to coat the rubber so that the rubber appears to change color. Any pooled excess can be carefully scooped out with a spoon. When this layer is dry I brush a coat of Sculpt and Coat over it. I resist the urge to fill in any cracks or separations in the Paperclay with more Paperclay until the Sculpt and Coat is dry, as re-wetting it can also cause it to wrinkle and deform.

I apply one or two more layers in this manner (pancake batter slip, followed by a coat of Sculpt and Coat) and then I switch to the mashed potato slip. I apply a layer about 1/8" -1/4" thick, let it dry, and then coat it with Sculpt and Coat, again resisting the urge to fill any cracks or separations with Paperclay until the Sculpt and Coat is dry. And believe me, it takes some resisting, as the cracks are large and plentiful at this stage!

Then, using more mashed potato slip, I build up additional thickness around the edges and other vulnerable parts of the mask, finally fill in the cracks and separations, and apply another coat of Sculpt and Coat. Some of the very deep cracks may require more than one application of slip and Sculpt and Coat. Once everything feels dry I remove the cast from the mold, being careful about parts such as noses and eartips that may have some hidden dampness.

This method of casting is susceptible to hidden air pockets in between layers of Paperclay, especially along the edges of raised areas such as eyebrows, noses, etc. These areas can be very weak and can cave in if the mask is dropped, etc. I check for these by pressing along suspect areas with my fingers, trying to cave them in myself, and filling in any resulting dimples with more mashed potato slip.

Then I clean and repair the cast. I clean edges and seams with an exacto knife, or a dremel if necessary. I resculpt anything that needs resculpting- lost wrinkles, lips, eartips, etc with Paperclay straight from the package. I hold the mask up to a strong light to find any thin spots, which I fill from the inside with the mashed potato slip. I fill divots with more slip and smooth them out with a wet elephant ear sponge. I let everything dry, sand down the outside of the mask (220 grit is usually sufficient, tho 100 grit can be useful for very stubborn lumps and wrinkles) and repeat the process as necessary. Once the mask is the way I want it, I apply a final coat of Sculpt or Coat, inside and outside.

I wipe off the outside of the mask with a damp paper towel to get off any dust before I put Sculpt and Coat on it, as otherwise it can ball up and make lumps in the finish. I brush it on, and then wearing rubber gloves, I smooth it down with slightly dampened fingers. Since the Sculpt and Coat dries very quickly, I apply it to smallish areas (about 2" by 2") and smooth as I go.

I have also experimented with using an initial detail coat of Sculpt and Coat, and my results are mixed. I've gotten some gorgeous casts, but when I get casts with the usual holes, divots, etc I have the extra step of cutting away the dried Sculpt and Coat from the edges in order to repair them. If you do want to try this, just apply the Sculpt and Coat thinly. If it's applied in big thick pools the top will dry but the bottom won't, since the top will have sealed the bottom away from the air.