Plaster of Paris Masks
Last year we attended Shakespearean masquerade ball in costume. We met a gentleman who had been to Venice and was sporting the loveliest mask that he had purchased there. Antony was entranced by its elegance and simplicity. It was similar to the harlequin style masks, held on a stick with multicolored squares and colorful trim.
Later we attended a physical theater workshop given by the FAUSTWORK Mask Theater Company. The performer demonstrated the use of different masks and how to create a unique character around them. Antony loved the masks!
So, off to the craft store for us to find mask-making equipment and thank goodness they had a tidy little kit, called Rigid-Wrap, for children. It included instructions for molding the mask on a real face with their cloth strips impregnated with plaster of Paris. Antony conned his brother into lying on the sofa and submitting to a greasy application of petroleum jelly on his face (protection from the ingredients and easy mask removal). Then Antony applied strip after strip to Octavian's face until the mask was completed. Waited twenty minutes, pulled it off, baked it in the oven on low heat and it was ready to paint! Wow!
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