**Process** The Chinese Dragon

Now I just need to drill 50 gazillion holes in him and load them with firecrackers.

were-jaguar process

jaguars must have spots. They're getting drawn on by hand. First with a thin sharpie for outlines.

And then everywhere that I want to stay light gets filled in with a thick sharpie. the marker will act as a resist. Erasing is basically impossible, as the acetone ALSO acts as a resist. Any unwanted line must be sanded off.

On a mask with so much detail on one side, some detail must be applied to the other, lest the whole thing look odd on display

And here he is with the patina applied. Next step will be to remove the sharpie.

Supplies for the Chinese Dragon

For his mane and mustache. I'm excited.

Banshee **process**

I wasn't planning on starting the banshee just yet, but the opportunity arose. She is formed over a cheap plastic mask; once she's got enough layers of lacquer, I'll peel that out and she'll be self supporting.

Not all the monsters will be pretty- the Banshee may well be the ugliest, when we get to the end. There's no good literary reason why- I mean, yes, she's a harbinger of bad tidings, but she doesn't ever actually DO anything.  The reason goes back to when i was a wee kid, and my mom had a couple of Brian Froud's books- Fairys, Gnomes, maybe something else. The Fairys book was my first intro to the darker side of fairytales, and one of the illustrations was of the Banshee, and it was terrifying. I mean, really really scary to a 7 year old girl, and not a lot less scary to me now, as a grown person. This mask is disturbing in a different way, but I knew from the beginning that she would have to make the viewer cringe a little.

The Squonk: **process**

 

Most of the time the the squonk has taken has been spent untangling chain- that chain arrives, all 100meters of it, in one unspooled heap. Fun. Worth it, though. Have to finish putting the tears on the other side, form the mask itself, and she'll be finished. 

Cereberus *process*

 

Some masks simply are more than one day's labor. Cereberus is fabricated, but not finished. His small heads both needs eyes, and he himself needs smoothing and generalized finishing. The he'll get waxed and have his portrait taken- hopefully tomorrow!  

1- pattern making. Cereberus' pattern is based off parts of Cassowary, Crocotta, and Phooka. ANd then mostly redrawn. 

2- Tracing. As you can see, the horns get put on, here. I did make a pattern for the horn tip heads, so they would be the same.

3. First hammer pass. Clearly, I missed photographing a few steps before here. This is after the second annealing (the first was just to fold the horns in half. Usually I do all my forming in one pass, but not today.

4. Second hammer pass. Getting the two horns where I want them, and perfectly matching. This is sometimes a little frustrating.

5. Soldering. Once the horns are done, the next step is to join that long seam. I'll do so in multiple passes, each time securing somewhere from 1-4 inches. 

6. Fabrication and fitting complete. The fitting on a piece with a crest can take a while- in this case over an hour to get all the curves lined up the way I wanted them. His crest helps balance the two hornheads that fall so far forward, making him actually pretty wearable.

Cheshire Cat: process

the frame for the cheshire cat, in progress

and the frame complete, with silver leaf teeth. This frame will be largely invisible, but, for now I have to let the leaf set for 48 hours. So on to cerberus!

Oroborous **process**

Much of the time, for face masks, I do not make a paper pattern. I copy my general pattern onto the metal, and then draw, either in or out from it, directly on the copper. I draw with a sharpie, and erase with acetone (acetone being the one chemical that I do keep in the shop- it's just so darned handy). I'll keep reworking it untill I think it's just right, and then I'll cut it out.

Three more Nymphs **process**

Three more Nymphs, in Progress. They'll go with the Dryad, already done. There still the nymphs of the streams and of the glen before that chapter will be finished. These are the nymphs, from top to bottom, of the mountains, the ocean, and the glade.

celestial stag **MORE process**

Yes, he's a little mask, but all those tiny wires had to be tacked in place in innumerable locations. It took forever. I superglued my mouth shut (true story). Photos are going to have to happen tomorrow.

Just so you know, though- he's gorgeous.

Monkey of the Inkpot **Process**

This is the second try on the monkey of the inkpot. We'll see how it goes. I want him to consist only of words, but i don't want to do that much piercing. I'm trying to etch it. Last time, the resist didn't last long enough to etch the whole way through. This time I used primer, and scratched it off the bits between words.

The Celestial Stag **Process**

I'm pleased with the antlers- the stag is formed, but still needs patina and a good bit of detail. Stay tuned!

Celestial Stag Process

I still didn't get final photos taken of the centaur. Instead, I started experimenting with making antlers. The first on came out looking nothing like an antler, but these I'm quite pleased with. Clearly, there's still a lot of work to be done on the Stag.

Centaur- Progress

this is what my bench looks like

The centaur is actually done- but I need to run errands, and there is no way I'm getting final photos done today, so we'll call this a process shot. it also gives a solid look at the mess on my assembly bench. I'll clean that up, some day, really

Centaur Progress

Pattern, laid out.

Even after spending ridiculous amounts of time on patterns, you can see- I change them on the metal.

And here he is formed.

I wasn't content with his coloration, though, so into the pickle he went

Wufniks still in Process

all the Wufniks, scarred and ready for forming

A month or so back, I was listening to recordings of some lectures Borges gave during his stay at Harvard. He mentioned, at one point, the number forty, and how, during biblical times it meant forever (40 days and 40 nights) but that, in recent times, it means nothing (40 winks). When one is making masks, 40 is once again infinite.

and, later, ready for fitting

Materials arrived!

All this stuff arrived yesterday. Kickstarter made this order possible. It's funny, though- I ordered 1300 worth of copper, and it arrived in a box that weighed in at 120 pounds. That box was impressive- it FELT like it could cost that much. This box was about 10x10x4, and weighed less than a pound. It didn't really feel like 570 dollars. I can't wait to get some of these masks going, though.

Chimera **process**

There's going to be a lot of process photos, and not many completed masks, here, for a bit while I'm waiting for all my peripherals to arrive. The Chimera I had meant to give a mane of copper scrubbies, but that just didn't look right. Now he's sitting on my bench with a feather mane, which is good, but the wrong colour, and so, I'll be ordering some feathers for him. Thank god for kickstarter, that's all i've got to say.

The Lamed Wuniks **process**

That's the lamed wufniks, right there. Amazingly, all 36 fit perfectly onto one sheet of copper. I was tempted to leave them there, they fit so well, and so put this sheet aside while working on kafka's critter. in the end, though, there was no reason for them to be in a rectangular sheet, and I decided to cut them up. Aren't they sort of lovely, though, like this?

The animal Imagined by Kafka **process**

Administration got the better of me, for a bit, But I'm moving again, full speed ahead. I have 120 pounds of copper sheet (hopefully enough for the full project) and have started ordering/ acquiring the incidentals needed. Here's the Animal envisioned by Kafka- it was waiting on orange muslin for months, and is now nearly complete- I bleached out his tail yesterday and hung him up to dry before his final trimming.

 Today, I brought it inside, combed it out, and trimmed it.