Last night on In the Zone hosted by Roberta Birnbaum Cohen and me, we celebrated Mardi Gras. Robi and I didn’t know until just a couple days ago what each of us were going to demo but it turns out we both decided to make Mardi Gras masks. I love how Robi made use of the environment she’s in while on her trip to Florida and made the mask out of items like leaves and shells she found around her.
For my mask, I made one that I felt was a reflection of me – items and techniques that people have come to think of as being associated with me because I rely on them so often.
I just folded a piece of paper in half and drew a design (that has been said to resemble a moustache) which I then traced onto scrap cardboard.
I started by covering the cardboard with pieces of the metal repair tape (used for duct work) that I so love to use. To add colour to it but still have the metal showing through, I kind of sponged on some acrylic craft paint. I used the three Mardi Gras colours of purple, green, and gold. I didn’t have any gold paint left so I used gold ink in its place. This ink wouldn’t adhere to the metal tape so you can see up on the left-hand side where I used some gel medium to stick some tissue paper onto the mask. The ink then could be applied to the tissue paper.
I used pieces of toilet paper tubes to create some dimension on the mask. I painted them inside and out before applying them with some glue.
Above is the gel medium and the glue I used in this project. If you know me, you know I can’t live without Liquitex products!
Rather than using actual feathers, since I love to use items from around my house, I made my own feathers from magazine pages with popsicle sticks glued to the back of them to add stability.
I glued and taped (for added security) the feathers to the back of the mask and added a dowel covered in more of the metal tape so that I had a way of holding the mask.
Final touches were things like rhinestones, glitter, and pompoms!
Here’s the playback link if you’d like to see the show: http://www.linqto.com/PlaybackRoom.aspx?roomname=creativeedventures&name=SingleExplicit_2011_03_07_19_59_59_260
Leave a Reply