THE SIXTH: Female Character: MASK

I sculpted desired shapes onto the head cast with an oil based clay. To make sure that chavant sticks to the plaster, I covered the surface of the cast with a thin layer of the PVA thinned with water. Next I took a quick alginate cast of the sculpted part and casted it in plaster. Because I am going to mould leather on top of the sculpt, I need the surface to be really film and strong. I'm using a vegetable tanned sheep leather to create the mask and some parts of costume. This type of leather is soft and very flexible once soaked in water. There has been another advantage of the PVA layer: the wet leather sticks nicely to the sutface allowing to mould and dry it without falling off.

The mask I've made is a test-mask which will serve me as a pattern: I will soak it again in warm water, lay it flat, and draw around to get the correct shape. It may seem like a waste of leather, but I need my pattern to be 100% accurate, and no other material has the properties of a sheep leather.

When the mask is ready, the fastening straps need to be attached. Both straps, after carefully measured in relation to the model's head, will be fitted with silver snap fasteners. The snap fasteners, just like the rivets, have to be chosen accordingly to the type and thickness of the leather. As seen on picture below, I glued some small pieces of leather in places where the fasteners are - that's because my leather was to thin, which could result in fasteners being fitted badly. Also, this will prevent the leather from stretching and fasteners going loose.

With the straps and fasteners sorted out, I need to start testing a dye on test-pieces. I'm using Fiebing's Leather Dye in Cordovan colour together with Fiebing's Lether Dye Reducer (for thinning leather dye). It is advised to use the leather dye in a well ventilated room and to wear rubber gloves to avoid nasty stains on the skin.

At the same time I'm preparing the hair, which will be glued onto the mask and one of the straps.

I bought an artificial hair in two shades of blond to match the natural colour of my model's hair. To make the fake hair look more natural, I rolled them onto the medium size plastic rollers and poured over with boiling water, which turns the straigt fibre-hair into desired waves. When dry, the hair were 'painted' with Skin Illustrator and sprayed with dry shampoo in order to reduce the shine. Then they were treated with thinning-scissors and cut accordingly to the lenght of the model's hair.

The hair-tapes are glued together and on to the net, which then will be glued on to the mask and to one of the leather straps. The net is essential to make the hair-straps lay naturally, either back or forth.

Also, a thin layer of hair is glued directly on to the mask to cover the net.