It's that time again for the
PCAGOE (Polymer Clay Artists Guild of Etsy) to display our talents in our monthly challenge. With Halloween around the corner, we decided on a mask theme. The members came up with some incredibly innovative mask designs. You can go to
pcagoe.com and
vote for your favorite to be entered to win one of 2 polymer clay prize packs worth over $100 each and donated by
PCAGOE members. Here are all of this month's entries:
My entry is the last one and I call him the "Avian Prince" :
I was inspired to create a bird mask from these prints by
rosiemusic.etsy.com (formerly Menta). I used one in a treasury list a week or so ago and I just couldn't stop thinking about the bird masks in her prints, so I decided on the bird from there. I didn't really use her imagery so much, as she had full face masks, and that seemed like too much work for me. I also new I wanted to do individual feathers since I could easily carve a stamp of those and i was thinking more along the lines of a bird of prey than a song bird.
This was my first mask and will have to say it was not easy. I burnt the first base that I made, but luckily I was able to salvage the beak (thank you liquid polymer clay!!) Then some how a bunch of feathers on one side got broken off while it was sitting on my kitchen counter before cooking and mysteriously the broken pieces were missing (obviously some was trying to conceal the damage, hmmm....). I finally got it in one piece and baked and then was able to paint. Of course I was in a hurry and tried to distress it before the paint was thoroughly dry. That's why there are some large chunks of paint missing. I decided that rather than painting, I would go with it and started chipping away at all the feathers to make it look like it was purposeful (Ha!). He turned out looking a little more like the Chicken Prince than a bird of prey, but overall I like the way he turned out.
I even found out that if I leaned him on his beak, he can stand alone, so now he is on display in my living room. It's always fun to try something new. Making a mask was never high on my creativity to-do list, but I found it to be a lot of fun. Be inspired by the
PCAGOE's masks and either create your own or use their innovation and creativity as a jumping point for you to try something new, stretch your creative muscles and create a masterpiece of your own. (And don't forget to
vote!!)
Polymer Clay Productions also has a
polymer clay mask tutorial on their site. Check it out for some more inspiration.
I almost forgot. Kyle was inspired by my mask to create his own. He mixed the colors, I cut out the base and he did all the embellishments. The mask is wearable , is all polymer clay and is modeled by his brother,Trey. It also glows in the dark! For fun, we entered it into the Etsy Costume contest:
