Masks - Picking Up A 31 Day Challenge

After reading  Cheryl Sleboda's Muppin.com post it seemed like a brilliant idea to join in a challenge to post to my blog every day for 31 days.  If you would like to participate, go to this LINK and sign up. 

 

And here is the content of my post today.  This time it is not about quilts.  It is about masks.  It's a continuation of my blog post yesterday about the positive  impact that playtime has on the creative process.

Sometime ago I found that I had accumulated cardboard of various ply that I was hesitant about tossing, so I set about constructing and painting some cardboard masks.  Several sold at an Open Studio event.  Some I gave to my granddaughter who was in elementary school but who is now all grown up and away at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.  Her mama, my daughter, must have liked the two masks that I gave to my granddaughter because they suddenly made a reappearance a few days ago as decorations on a dress form that she is storing for me.

                                          Here are a few more that I have kept stored away.

Creating fanciful items has always seemed to play a front stage role in my creative process.  A touch of zany is good for freeing up the mind.  I'm thinking that I might like to create something like these masks in dimensional fiber.  Hmmmm.  Wonder where that will take me next.

Always remember, never fear to experiment.  

Sometimes wonderful things happen.

© Linda Friedman 2015.  All rights reserved

Cinderellee, Cinderelleee Dress Form - Journal Page

When I adorn the paper mache dress form with my one of a kind fiber arts, I hope that thoughts of fanciful little birds will offer their inspiration.

Paper Mache Full Dress Form

Childhood memories lead to images flitting through my head from fancy filled Disney films. Since I'm always exploring different ways to display my fiber arts works, the concept of a new paper mache dress form began it's first stage of actualization in my journal.

The idea starts to take shape. The figure is approximately 36" tall. I can't wait for the front of the figure to dry so that I can start to paper mache the back side. All of this was constructed from the Saturday newspaper.

Paper Mache Bust Dress Form

In anticipation of our next North County Artists in Action open studios event, I've been researching full and bust dress forms to display my wearable quilt art and original jewelry designs. I was able to pick up a bust form at a local charity shop for a reasonable price, but began thinking that these forms might be a bit too standardized for the display of art work, especially if there were several of them in one venue. Since I have a stash of newspaper to cover work surfaces when I paint, I grabbed several sheets and scrunched them into forms that approximated a bust form. I held the paper together with masking tape and this allowed me to further refine the shape. Once a fairly reasonable form developed, I mixed up some flour, water and white glue, tore strips of newspaper and set about covering the form. Once the form was dried, I applied a coat of gesso. While the form was drying and "setting up", I went to the garage to look for materials that could be made into a stand and base. I cut an old broom handle to a size that might work, found a scrap of pine, drilled a hole through through the center of the pine scrap, drilled a pilot hole into the broom handle and then inserted a 3" brass screw. I carved and sanded the pole's end to a point so that it could be inserted through the paper mache and internal wadded up sheets of newspaper that were inside of the form. A little more paper mache strips were added around the hole where the pole was inserted and this was later touched up with more gesso. I haven't decided yet what the final finish will be, but I may leave it white and merely coat it with non yellowing, matte polyurethane.

Jewelry Dress Form

I couldn't put the dress form idea to sleep last night so took a scrap of fabric, traced the pattern from the screen print project onto the fabric and turned it into a jewelry dress form. The original fabric fell somewhere between eggshell and beige. The form looked just fine as it was, but when I painted the stand, I had to try out Generation Green Shimmer Opaque Gel Medium Sapphire* to see if it painted nicely on fabric. Ah ha! It did. It stiffened the fabric a bit and that is just fine for this project. The lace necklace and waist detailing was made on the sewing machine. I merely stitched circles and odd shapes on the stabilizer, rinsed out the stabilizer, and stitched these lacy pieces onto the form.



* Generation Green Gel Mediums may be ordered on-line through keelingskrafts.com. If you ever order anything through Keelings Krafts, you will be delighted. Barb and Doug Keeling are great to work with.