More Done on the Mask

I finished the eye for the mask. I've gone through many designs, and actually fabricated three different eyes for this mask. But I think I finally found the one that I like. It still features the partial filigree lense and the filigree climbing the eye. However, now it repeats the copper tubes that appear on the forehead.

I anticipate completion within the next week or so. I need to take a few days off since we're moving this weekend, so hopefully I can finish it in its entirety tomorrow.











See you space cowboy....

What's Left?

Well, there's not way too much left on the leather mask. After learning and getting comfortable with filigree, the rest is all a breeze.

But there's some basic fabrication left.

Here are some sketches of the eye. There's three



The eye will have a hollow-formed piece coming off of it. Actually, the hollow form is built. It's just not on yet. As seen in the two smaller sketches, the filigree will climb, like the vines it resembles, from the eye to the external portion.

Here's a close-up:


As can be seen in the close-up, there is really no lense to this piece. The filigree covers the viewing area, causing a filigree screen. I'm trying to go reasonably traditional as far as technique goes on this piece, so acrylic or resin lenses won't really do.

The filigree will also climb on the inside of the eye.

Now, a HUGE problem I have whenever I work on a mask is the method of adornment. It seems that I always just assume that straps will be used, but that's not necissarily the case. Since this piece was designed based on Cirque du Soleil masks, I decided to go with a masquerade technique and use a handle. Much like The Contemporary Shaman Mask of the Healer. However, this time around it will transition much better with the mask and the concept of the piece. Take a look.




Like the forehead of the mask, three tubes will extend from the right side of the mask (I am a righty, after all) and lead to a larger copper tube. The connections will look very industrial, as is the purpose of the copper in the mask. Going down the handle, there will be filigree climbing. It will then extend into the mask. There's some other ideas that I'm tossing around, but I don't really know. I was thinking of using a chain to connect a bracelet to the handle. The bracelet would clasp on the wearer, and would incorporate both the copper and the filigree.


This piece in idea and design has greatly evolved. I decided to change the perspective name (like I usually do half a dozen times) and call it the Contemporary Shaman Mask of the Apocolypse. What I find interesting is that, from the side, the mask is starting to look like an industrial landscape that has been taken over by silver vines. I'm running with that.








See you space cowboy....

Progress on the Mask

Well I've been working very hard on the leather mask. The hardest part has been the fine silver filigree. Yes, filigree. True filigree, too. No solder here! So here's some pictures from the past few days of work. Please keep something in mind when viewing these photos: The leather is not fully finished, and neither is ANY of the metal. Polishing, sanding, shining, and patinas still need to be applied.


Day 1:
This is the first day of work on the mask. I formed the leather using an old European traditional method (I may go into that in a later post...Or I may be greedy and keep it a secret. Who knows?)


Day 2:

This is day two of the work on the mask. I started working on the fine silver filigree, and figuring out its connections to the mask. The filigree is held on by fine silver nuts and bolts that go through part of the filigree. It just takes a little planning ahead.


Day 3:
This is the third day of work. I added some more filigree and applied some copper tubing with filigree on it for the purpose of the industrial vs natural message of the mask.





Day 4:
On day four of the work on this mask, I attacked the cyborg eye. This has been the part I have been fearing the most. Soldering filigree to small copper tubes is fairly simple, but large pieces of copper with overflowing filigree is a different animal all together.


After a several hour nap, I then went back to work, with more filigree coming off of the eye to the top. More filigree will be done within the next day or two around the eye.








See you space cowboy....

New Memento Mori Maximum Pictures

I took some new pictures of Memento Mori Maximum. The dark shots came out really well.

Here it is in normal lighting.


Here's three pictures of the crystals lit up. The far right and farm left pictures are during color changes. The center is an interesting one. I extended the exposure to about 6 seconds on the camera, causing all of the colors throughout the changes to combine to make a white-ish light. It definately does the chlorine crystals justice.





See you space cowboy....

Mask Making is Mask Making

Today I started and finished working on the leather for my first leather Steampunk mask. This one is a doozey! What I find amusing is the fact that no matter what the medium, mask making is mask making. A lot of the techniques that I learned and picked up from Arick Syzmecki and Andy Lavin translate directly into traditional leather mask-making. It's so similiar to so many things that I've seen those two do. The other thing that I find amazing is how much leather works like copper. That gave me a huge leg-up.

Here's the leather portion of the mask done. It took about 12 hours to complete this part.


There will be metalwork all over the mask. The two metals I'm using (always 2 tones) are copper and fine silver. And as usual, my masks make a societal statement. In this mask, the statement is in the choice of metal primarily, but is carried through the entire piece. Fine silver naturally maintains its shine, never gaining the natural patina put on by weather and human hands. Meanwhile, copper patinas very quickly. The metalwork will be similar to previous masks, having a cyborg eye and tubing on the forehead. What is the statement? If the copper is man, then the silver is what man has created. Much like the mask as a whole, the silver's appearance will outlast the appearance of the copper. In the big picture, the metallic cyborg components will outlive the organic leather human components. It is a statement of time, thus it will be titled The Contemporary Shaman Mask of the Eternal.



See you space cowboy....

Memento Mori Maximum

So I've been working on this pieve pretty intently. After a few weeks of wailing on metal, molding and carving resin, and figuring out/assembling electronics, the piece is done.

Before I throw some of the pictures up on here, I'll explain the piece a bit.

As some of you may remember, I experienced what I perceived as the Memento Mori Maximum a while back. A memento mori, to review, is something that reminds us that we will die. It comes from a Roman practice during war when a hero was followed by a servant that reminded him over and over to celebrate today because tomorrow he will die. It was later adopted by Catholics during the dark ages.

Well, this Memento Mori Maximum occured when I was cleaning out the Buffalo State Metals Studio acid cabinet, and discovered a container full of ferric chloride, with large chlorine crystals growing inside. The beauty absolutely struck me, but then the realization occured that I must destroy these toxic crystals.

This event really did change my view and perspective on things (it also helped that it followed a deadly concussion). To see these crystals in their utmost toxicity thriving, and to realize that it is my job to whipe them out, this was shocking. But in a final middle finger, the neutralization of these crystals caused a color-changing and moving cloud in the water. This was then followed up by a shocking realization on my own place in the world when I talked to Steve Sarcino (professor of Metals at Buffalo State for those of you not from here) about the whole thing. I said "I realized I had to kill the crystals, even though I know they aren't technically alive." He replied "According to us biological beings, they aren't alive. But don't we have a bias on the definition of alive?" This absolutely blew my mind. In Anthropology, we are taught to remain relative and unbiased at all times when it comes to dealing with other people. But the idea of biological relativity absolutely blew cultural relativity out of the water in the scale of the universe.

Since this whole event was so important to me, it only made sense to display it in my work.

For this piece, I chose to utilize the idea of a thurible. A thurble is the hanging, swinging incense burner used it masses. I chose this because when I was growing up (not that I'm not still), I was an altar server (shocking, I know. I actually wanted to be a priest.) My favorite things to serve were life events, seeing as altar servers were paid for it. On Wednesday, I'd see a Baptism, on Friday I'd serve a wedding, on Sunday, I'd serve a funeral. Week in and week out, I saw the circle of life (LION KING!) take place, and the one standard part of this constant repetition of birth, life, and death was my task of preparing the thurible for each.

So enough of the talk, here's some pictures.

This is the thurible after the pieces were all fabricated.

This is the thurible after I carved the positives of the crystals that would be molded and cast in place.

This is the thurible with the lights on. The color is a little scewed. It looks like it's entirely brass, but it isn't. It's copper and brass.

This is an animation of the crystals changing color. I did all of the electronics myself. The purpose of the lights is to promote the interaction between the incense smoke and the light.

So there we go.

See you space cowboy....

Memento Mori Maximum

Much progress has been made on the Memento Mori Maximum thurible. It should be done this week, then I will move on to completing my stone mask.


See you space cowboy....