For the past two months, I have worked on a mask, in class. The two inspirations that I took were from Japanese culture and Venetian masquerade masks, although when looking at my mask you can see more inspiration from the masquerade mask I incorporate the meaning behind colors in Japanese culture. But first my research part.
I started looking at different Japanese mask, the one that caught my attention was the Okame mask, which means happiness and good fortune. During the 19th century, the mask was mostly simple wood carving with no coloring. Now you can see these masks in white in Japanese carnivals make out of plastic, but there are also made out of wood.
Then I started looking through Venetian masquerade mask. What I loved about this mask was the over the top decorations on some and then there were simple blank masks that seem mysterious, like the Bauta mask. These masks were a simple and white mask that was worn by high profile people. They wore these masks to hide their identity to do indecent things, like gambling. The mask was more worn by men and also work with a black cape to cover-up the entire rest of the head.
Some Honorable Mentions
I also looked into another mask however I didn’t know how to make it my own concept. I would like to make them in the future.
Funeral Mask: This Mask is From the Moche People in Peru, they are the funeral mask that identifies the dead. Each mask is different because they represent different people.
Hannya Mask: Overcoming a jealous female demon and Venge
Starting Point
For my mask, I knew I wanted a color scheme which was gold, red and black. Each color has a meaning in Japanese culture. Gold was a symbol of happiness and good luck, red means passion. and strength and black weren’t really meant to be a meaning behind it, I just like black. It’s my favorite color. I started to sketch somethings and seeing what would work and what wouldn’t, by combining both culture’s aesthetics without being too much. I went through some different changes and styles in design. I first started making my version of an Okame mask but in a more modernized way, and combining only the cape-like from a Bauta mask. At first, I did like them but it didn’t sit right with me. I wanted to add golden tears because of the symbolic meaning behind in Japanese culture. I was also indecisive if I wanted the tears with an actual bead or make into words around the face to make it more graphic design kind of look, but it seemed so much very telling that is a joyful mask. For my next design, I made a more Venetian mask and adding feathers and seemed more festive, I quickly shut down that idea because I didn’t like the outcome. The las design was coming along better. I added the red, black and gold that I wanted. and the gold teardrops did complement the colors very nicely. I made several changes throughout my wiring and paper mâché process. I didn’t have a set idea until my sculpt mold was dry.
Procedure
First I would tell you the material I used. Maybe you would like to make your own mask.
- Wood
- Clay
- Plaster
- Variation of wire
- Cutting wire
- Pliers
- Flour
- Tracing paper
- Sculpatamold
- Mod Podge ( gloss )
- PVA glue
- Mulberry Paper
For our procedure, I first started to make a wooden base, to mount our face mask as our final presentation. This part was the less messy thing to do in this entire project. Next was the face mold of our face using clay. I pressed my face super hard to the clay so you can see the details of my face, but that was very difficult to do because clay isn’t the easiest thing to push down with your whole face unless someone holds you down. There is another method to get your face molded, like silicone casting mold or alginate casting mold. I decided not to do this method because the material stays in your face for a while until it dries up to remove it. If you’re cluster phobic I DO NOT RECOMMEND IT !. Also, use a straw if you’re planning to use silicone or alginate to make your mold, so you can have a source of oxygen. After making your mold you would add your plaster in the mold. This process was when everything started to get messy, and the end result of my face creepy, I was seeing myself but also my face seemed very flat. Overall awesome experience doing this for the first time.
After this process, I started to do the wiring. This step was a crucial step because it would determine how the mast would look when it all together. I would say the wiring process, was stressful because it’s where I changed my design serval times. In wiring form, you can sorta see how your mask will end up being. Wiring is also very hard if you don’t have the pliers and the cutting tool, it also hurts your finger and hands a lot. I made a few mistakes around the eye area and the nose. One eye is bigger than the other but It gives it some character. At first, I wanted the wiring to be my mask, and that’s all and I really liked that concept of seeing through a mask but it was too simple.
After the wiring, I started the paper mâché. I used tracing paper, flour, and water. Tracing paper is easier to use because it’s thinner and abler to mold around your wire easier rather than a newspaper, and it also stuck better to the wire form. I have to make about several later to hide the wire and make my mask hard and sturdy. This part was the most relaxing thing to do.
Things were coming together, then everything changed when the sculptamold was introduced. It was sculpting time! This is where you are defiantly set on your mask was going to look like before adding all the pretty decorations. You can see that my mask has a more Venetian feeling to it. It also has the Buata presence there. What I liked the most was the outcome of the hight bone looking cheeks and the hight pointy nose. As you can see, I was able to fix the eyes, to make it similar in size. The mold really did change some of the outcomes of my design.
For my last, and more fun part was the decoration. THANKS TO MY SCHOOL, I was able to buy great materials at blick art (#NOTSPONSORED) which were, the two different types of, mulberry paper (red and black), mod podge, and PVA glue. I first covered my mask, by section, with PVA, to place down strips mulberrybery paper down. I cover the then entire mask first with the red paper. after covering the mask, I pour on top the glossy mod podge. At first, I didn’t think I was going to like BUT it gave my mask a cleaner look. After letting that dry I added the black paper. I chose this black paper with holes because I thought it was a nice idea to have the red show behind but only in the lower part of the mask. I also used the black for the cape/hood. to make it all cohesive. I didn’t want the black layer to have any gloss because I wanted that cloth look on top, which I successfully did. For the final touch, I added golden tears. I was happy to find the tears that looked like glass. The reason I only placed it in once section of the eye, was because it would have been too much if I had strings of beads in two eyes.
TADA!! MY FIRST MASK! HANDCRAFT BY YOURS TRULY:)
I am hopping to make more mask in the future because this process was fantastic. And hopefully add more to my Happiness mask aswell.
