masks

Cool crochet masks

These cool crocheted fox masks are only a couple of the unusual masks made by Huck and Stuff. I’m such a slow and occasional knitter and crocheter myself (in fact I’ve crocheted so seldom I shouldn’t count as one at all) that I’m amazed at the use of either to make masks or puppets. But they look great and given the wire frame construction are probably light and airy to wear, which is a terrific advantage.

If you remember the 1980’s ABC TV series of Blinky Bill, the puppets for that were designed and knitted by Beverley Campbell-Jackson, one of the founders of  Spare Parts Puppet Theatre .

(via Whip up)

Sea creature masks by Yiying Lu

Yiying Lu (of fail whale fame) has designed a set of ten beautiful sea creature masks for children for the Sydney Aquarium. Go and look at them, they will make your day better!

Penguin masks and earth hour

penguin masks

These penguin masks, being worn outside the UN Framework of Climate Change Conference in Bali last November, interested me because I liked the way the coarse gauze was so effective, while not hiding the faces. The photo is taken from our newspaper at the time, via Associated Press.

I’ve always thought a cool way of making a penguin character would be to have a head mask, but then wear a tuxedo as the rest of the costume, letting people make the penguin suit connection themselves. However no-one has ever taken me up on the suggestion!

We turned our lights off for Earth Hour tonight. It was a beautiful clear starry night.

Dave Riley’s Mask Studio tutorials

Dave Riley is a mask-maker, puppeteer and playwright based in Brisbane. His Mask Studio tutorials have been of great help to me a number of times – thanks Dave! There are two mask tutorials:

The felt method is really interesting. It involves soaking the felt in white glue and then moulding it to shape rather like working leather. There are then different finishes to experiment with, including paint, and leather gloss and polish. The result is a very light strong mask.

A few years ago when I first tried it and made a series of animal masks, I built on a paper mache base because I wasn’t sure it would be strong enough otherwise, but recently in making some smaller masks for Hidden Corners’ ‘See Beneath’, I was more confident in using the felt by itself, with a muslin/white glue backing to make the inside comfortable and strong.

Masks before painting

 

The seaweed fronds had a little extra strengthening, just because the shape was not intrinsically strong like the shell. The fishy mask was done a little differently, without felt because I wanted finer detail. It is carved quite thinly out of styrofoam, and has several layers of muslin and white glue to give it strength.

Masks

 

These have a water-based polymer gloss varnish added to the paint, which kind of plasticizes them.