The fox mask was one of the most popular designs from my previous mask-making business (Goblin Art, 1999-2015), as well as being one of my personal favorites. And so it was one of the first mask designs I decided to revisit with my recycled coffee sack burlap and natural polymer starch (bioplastic) mask-making technique.
I call the burlap version the "Rustic Fox". I stitched details with jute cord and painted it with locally collected earth pigments and campfire charcoal. The paint medium I used was methyl cellulose, a biodegradable material derived from wood cellulose.
This mask was shaped over a plaster copy of my original water-based clay fox mask sculpt. But it is possible to form a burlap or paper mache mask like this over a water-based clay mask sculpture, using a release layer of tissue paper, recycled aluminum foil or a sheet of thin plastic. (I'll be documenting this process in a forthcoming tutorial).
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Plaster fox mask form I made for my old mask-making business |
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Coffee sack burlap moistened with bioplastic starch mixture, stretched over plaster form
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When dry, the burlap mask is peeled from the form and eye holes are trimmed out. |
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Here is an inside view of the mask, showing how I stitched recycled copper wire around the edges of the mask for reinforcement. |
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Partway through adding stitched details with jute cord. |
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Stitched details finished, now adding color with natural pigments I collected. |
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The biodegradable pigment binder I used was Methyl cellulose, most commonly used for book-binding, but also sold as Elmer's Art Paste. |
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The finished mask! |
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