For art class, we had to make papier-mâché masks. Our theme, like most of this year, was mythology. We could choose anybody from mythology and make it. So sticking with my love of trees and such, I decided to do Daphne. Scroll down for the myth, it's Greek.
Started at the end of April, 2010, I finished sometime around May 24th 2010
<-Here's the mask lying down on my back porch :D I dislike how the photo turned out; it doesn't show the depth of the mask, or the many, many translucent layers of paint that I slaved over. -shakefist- Contrary to popular belief, this mask is fairly light; it's about a pound or so, which is--really--the average weight of a head. Look, ma--no eyes. Adds mystery... kind of scary, tho. . 
<-Neck detail. Ohmygod. Individual rolls of tissue paper waded and shaped to look like bark. There's fine metallic gold paint dusted over the bark, copper paint in the hair, and silver paint lining the leaves. 
Most of the branches on this mask are adjustable, along with a nice rustling sound if you shake the head.The branches are pipecleaner wrapped in maché and painted. Tips of pipecleaner are painted green to look like buds... this shot shows the underside of one bud I didn't paint too well. Woopsie.
Bark bursts forward. This was done with rectangular pieces of cardstock angrily--furiously!--taped and wrestled onto the face, then wrapped in maché. You can see the edges painted in gold and the leaves in silver. The eyebrow is also kind of visible here.
The wrinkles also add nice effects,thank goodness. This mask was painted in 100% acrylics, which is nice as the colour is very vibrant on the paper.
Veins on the cheek-barks were also quite painful. Tissue paper is hard stuff to work with. (At this point I realized I didn't take pictures of the nose, which was also a feat in itself).The ears are pointed and also tissue paper'ed for texture, pointed in shape with one branch extending out from the back. The mask sits flat on a table sans problems.
Seventeen branches in total. Seventeen. God I'm never doing a tree-maché (LOL IRONY...) mask again. The pipecleaner was taped onto the top of the head of the mask, and then wrapped. The wrapping wouldn't stay so I had a lot of trouble with this.
The inside of the mask is painted dark brown.
