Class: Complex masks!

[labricoleuse]

My students presented their complex mask projects today, and i just LOVE them all! Check these out!



First-year grad Leah Pelz made this fun walkaround hippopotamus head!
The wearer looks out his happy open mouth.


Quarter-scale and half-scale versions which helped Leah figure out her final pattern.
(My fingers are there for scale.)


Second-year grad Adrienne Corral made the Lisa Frank unicorn!
The wearer looks out the eyedomes and the nostrils.


Side view of mask with Jumbo-Braid rainbow mane.


Quarter-scale and half-scale versions which helped Adrienne figure out her final pattern.
(My fingers are there for scale.)


First-year grad Kelly Renko made this old-man mask based on a Julie Taymor design!
The wearer looks out his creepy black eyes, which are the lenses of sunglasses. And speaking of creepy...


...his jaw rips off to spew ribbon blood! Ew!


Undergraduate Lydia Hanchett made this Skeksis mask from Varaform and buckram
on a carved blue foam matrix. The wearer has full vision through all layers!


Undergraduate Jess Adams made this traditional molded leather Pantalone mask.
He's my favorite Commedia guy! (Jess's matrix is at left.)


Second-year grad student Candy McClernan made this traditional molded leather skull mask, with the goal of modifying an existing mask matrix to withstand leather molding. At left you can see a customized "eye-tolliker" she made to create the depressions of the eyes as deeply as she wanted them. At center, the horn hammer used to make these traditional masks.

Comments

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

They all did very well.

I like that you teach them how to scale up to make the shapes that they need for the foam. It may take a little longer but it does help when you get to the actual materials that cost a bit.

Also the Skesis is quiet good and a clever way to solve the vision problem.

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

Could you please explain a bit about the use of the horn hammer? Also, is it a tool that they would have had to build? Thanks!

[labricoleuse.livejournal.com]

The method for making traditional Italian leather commedia masks is detailed in (among other places) Thurston James' Mask-Maker's Handbook, which i think is OOP and involves some scary pre-safety practices like images of people having a cigarette near open cans of acetone and such, but method-wise is full of some great info. In there, they describe the use of the horn hammer to help shape the wet leather down into the crevices of the base sculpture of a mask. It gives you more force and direction than just pressing with a finger or a sticketta (a sculpting tool), but is not hard enough to damage the fibres of the leather unless you really overdo it.

Both Jess and Candy made their own horn hammers for this project. Basically, they got decent sized horns , drilled holes in them, and bought hammer handles from the hardware store, then assembled them as you see in the pic!

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

Thanks! That's just the kind of information I was looking for.

[brian jeffrey (from livejournal.com)]

Wow....very nice. Talented students/artisans.