Masquerade Masks

These masks were a commission. I was given a photo of a dress to match and asked to make a pair of masks on sticks, rather than elastic. It was a fun trip to Spotlight with a budget and a colour scheme!

Bought materials:

• Two green masks
• Two pieces of dowel (wood sticks)
• Green velvet ribbon
• Paper flowers in yellow
• Pre-made mini dragonflies
• Green feathers
• Yellow feathers
• Big gold sequins
• Small gold sequins
• Green glass leaves
• Packet of mixed gems
• Packet of glass eyes
• Green puff paint
• Gold puff paint

Own materials:

• Glue gun
• Fabric
• Beach glass
• Random beads
• Fake leaves

I bought the base mask in green and had to attach the sticks myself. I got two short pieces of dowel and wrapped them in velvet ribbon. The ribbon was secured with a glue gun, but I also stitched the ends in place to cover the glue up. I used a lot of glue to attach them to the back of the masks, and had to glue a fabric patch over them to make it more secure: my first attempt simply popped off!

Female Mask
I've made a few masks before and find that they are a great creative medium. You can pretty much stick anything on them! With the green theme this was always going to be a garden: flowers, leaves and dragonflies. 
There was no plan, I simply started sticking leaves on and it evolved from there. The dragonflies were too cute to pass up and they perched nicely on the mask. Butterflies would have been too big, I think.
You can't load the masks up with too many things, as they become to heavy to wear or carry. I try to use light materials.

I like to add touches of other colours because it can make the whole item pop. Though a certain green and gold were the main colours from the dress, I could also use a range of greens and yellows that would blend in nicely. Puff paint covered up and odd bits of glue that were visible and added extra glitter too.

The feathers and flowers on the side helped to disguise the stitches and glue that kept the stick attached to the mask. The paper flowers mean that the mask can't get wet, but you tend to avoid that anyway! I just thought they were nicer than the plastic and silk flowers.

Female masks are easier to make in a lot of ways. What is 'feminine' is more easily defined than masculine: flowers, feathers, sequins. Of course everyone is an individual, but generally the women that I have made masks for don't object to glitter. 

Male Mask My challenge with this project was only having met the gentleman the once. I didn't want to give him a plain mask, but I didn't think that leaves and flowers were the way to go. What I did was still a bit out there, but in a different way. 
Crocodiles.
We have a lot of reptiles in our area of the world. A LOT. So when I saw the packet of glass eyes at the shop I was inspired. Now to make the 'skin'.

The fabric was a stroke of genius (I thought): it was from the same print workshop as the dress I was matching, but in different colours. I tore my entire fabric stash apart looking for it, because I knew that I had that one little scrap somewhere. It linked the masks and the dress together nicely.

All of the pieces of glass are the size of coins, picked up from the beach in my town. The light piece right in the middle is the neck of a bottle! Some of what we pick up are fascinating shapes, or still have writing on them.
I used the glue gun to set the glass in place and then added super glue to keep it there. The glass is very smooth, so the glue had a hard time sticking to it. The first couple of 'shake tests' that I did on it had a few pieces falling off.
As with the first mask, I used more than just one colour. I thought that the skin effect was quite good and that the mask was masculine enough. 

Unfortunately it was a little tight across the face when it was first tried on, so I had to carefully bend it out and a few of the glass pieces popped off again. I was able to glue them back on though.

The masks were apparently a success on the night, so another happy customer!