Dummy Support

Everyone needs support, even dummies.  No, that's not what this is about.  I made a dummy lion mask. This accomplishes two things: One, it gives me an opportunity to try out the lion mold.  And two, I need a support for the final mask while it is still soft and being worked on.  As you can see in the photo,  the mask does not pop out of the mold to perfection.  It doesn't help when you drop it (see the dent above the right eye).  The final mask will need to be tweaked a little.  The faux ivory mask will need support when it comes out of the mold and that little mound in the photo should be a perfect fit.  It was made from the inside of the dummy mask and then slightly reshaped and smoothed out.

Little Dragon

I took a couple days off working on my lion mask because we had a birthday party for my dad who is celebrating number 80!  Wow.  Anywho, check out this little Bearded Dragon.  I took this pic at the pet shop with my Samsung Galaxy phone.  Don't leave home without it!

French Creek Panorama

Autumn color is slipping away from our area and the icy grip of winter is waiting right around the corner.  I took this shot a couple weeks ago at French Creek State Park in Pennsylvania.

Mane Markers

The easiest way to describe this step is to show it rather than tell it.  The mane on this lion mask is really the focal point of the new design.  The mask will not have holes for leather cord or shoestrings to simulate the mane.  Slots will be made around the perimeter of the mask and cut leather pieces will come out of the slots.

I went around the perimeter of the sculpt to mark where I wanted the leather mane pieces to be.  Every mark overlaps so there should be no gaps in the mane.

Using sizing rods, I bent brass strips to match the marks around the base of the mask.

Here are the mane markers cut and ready to use.  They will be pressed into the polymer clay mask before baking.  They are just for marking the slots and will not be pushed all the way in.  I have a Dremel bit to cut the slots once the mask is baked.

Lion Mold

Here is my lion mold (or mould as it's spelled in other parts of the world).  I would love to make lots of tribal masks but it is a slow process.  One of the ways to speed up that process is to be able to vacuum form my molds.  I'm looking into making a vacuum form table.  There are several plans for that on the internet that involve a home oven and a shopvac.  For now, polymer clay is the way to go.

Lion Sculpt

Here is my sculpt for the lion mask.  To me, it has more of a tribal mask look to it than many of my previous attempts.  Originally, it was about a half inch shallower (is that a word?) and I wanted to add some depth to it.  So I added half an inch to the base and rebaked it.  The second bake produced cracks around the base and down the right side of the nose.  I filled the cracks around the base and baked it a third time.  This should work out fine for the mold.
See the slight burn on the nose?  I left it in the oven a little too long.

One More Time

I've tried making a lion mask many, many times.  I've done well over a dozen sculpts, and even though a couple made it to the finished product, I was never really completely happy with them.  I have this great vision of what this mask will look like and so I'm taking a stab at a really awesome lion mask one more time.  This mask is many times bigger than the other ones.  It is not going to be a pendant.  This lion mask will be a display piece, home decor.
Here, along with the drawing, is a stencil for the mask.  It keeps the elements of the mask in scale while I'm sculpting.  It also has the tip of the nose and mouth that will only be molded from the colored clay and placed directly on the mask.