JPHii Design: John Harris: Jewelry in Motion Piece

We've all talked about our runway pieces, but I feel like my idea is not well-explained. I'm fine with that seeing as I love the "Wow" factor in suprising people, but I plan on wowing all of you with the runway show itself, so here I will go much further in depth into my concept.

Here's a small drawing of the basic idea.

This drawing shows the head without the mask, then two with it. The mask will actually be a double mask. There will be a human-like mast on the front of the face with one eye being a monacle. The importance of this monacle is that it serves a point to the greater meaning of the piece.

The mask itself is supposed to represent the shamanistic mask. It's a mand-made mask worn by shaman in order to perform a ritual or tell a story. This practice exists across the globe, and odds are, all of our roots started with a similar ceremony. The cyborg eye (monacle) is serving the point, to me, of representing the shaman's vision. Shaman are said to see the world in an entirely different way. Usually in bright colors, shapes, and supersensativity to details around them. This is why they are generally called excentric. Honestly, I believe that all artists are shaman because the world comes through sensative eyes. For example: Glen. I was outside with Glen one day, and he made an interesting sculpture or two out of pinecones and feathers. Most people wouldn't see that, but he did. That's the shaman's view. So the monacle is the eye in which the shaman views the world. There was also be integrated piercing work done in copper near the forhead. The way I plan on integrating and transitioning the metal to the soft, silicon mask is by casting in place. I will cast the metal pieces to appear to be coming through the skin.

The most interesting part of this mask, to me, is the fact that it's actually two masks. One mask sits on the top of the models head, the other on the front. They will be connected together and held on by hidden elastic straps. The model will come out on the runway on two legs, showing his human face. He will then end up on all fours and look at the audience with the top of his head. He will actually be looking at the ground, but the mask will make it appear as if he's looking at the crowd out of a new mask.

The purpose of this is to tell the common shamanistic story of the shaman's transformation from human into beast, which is a common belief by shaman all over the world.

Now here's some reference pictures I've used.

These are traditional shaman masks:

As far as color, modernization, and shape, I used a different reference.

I've been a HUGE fan of Cirque du Soleil for YEARS, and I finally get the chance to do something I can use that influence in. Actually, Mystere is what originally instilled interest in masks for me. So here's some mask pictures from Cirque.