Didn't Manage To Rustle Up Friends To Model Masks Today, But I Wanted To Post Some Stuff. So Here's A

Didn't manage to rustle up friends to model masks today, but I wanted to post some stuff. So here's a new mask design, a fox!

Not quite big enough ears to call it a fennec, but I wanted them to be fairly big.

Worked out a way to make the nose that I actually like and isn't too fussy! It's not super visible from this angle but oh well. It also gives a good delineation for painting the nose, so that's fun. I think the next copy I make of this design, I'm going to draw out a swirling filigree pattern to give some texture to the surface.

This mask is up for sale on my Etsy shop!

Finally posting this canine hood now that I got nice photos of it! When making it I’d had a serious, attentive sort of personality in mind, with the angular snout and the upright ears. But my friend made it look really playful I thought. 

It’s up for sale on my Etsy shop!

This one was sort of a first pass at making this type of mask, so I cut it by hand and kind of worked it out as I went. If there seems to be interest/demand for this, there are some things I’d adjust. But one thing I was thinking ahead for, is the ears and snout are removable, so I could have a variety of styles to snap on and off.

And even if there isn’t that high a demand for this from the people who follow me, the buckle arrangement I worked out here is pretty good as a framework for making a large full-face mask. So I do plan to make other masks with this as a starting point. The next thing I tackle will probably be a dragon, because of course I need to do a dragon.

Made this set of bull horns for that color guard group. I wanted to try out making horns in this way, being hollow and stitched together. The end result was really nice, but wow it was a trial to stitch these together.

The basic challenge is, when you’re sewing through a piece of fabric, the needle has to go somewhere. When you’re sewing right up at the thin tip of the horn, where does the needle go? The answer turns out to be that you have to sew it in two halves, then you sew the two remaining seams at the same time, keeping it really loose until you get far enough and have enough room that you can tighten them up. These took 8 hours to stitch together, which for reference was about how much time it took to sew this plague doctor mask. Because of the amount of time it took, it doesn’t make sense for me to offer this design for sale. But I really did like how these turned out, and I think I would like to use this style of horn in future large masks where the size and impact of the piece can justify the time investment and price. I might also be able to make not-fully-closed horns in a similar manner, that should take significantly less time.

I took these process photos for my own reference really, but I figured people might be interested in seeing them. I’ve got some final photos that I’ll dig through in a bit.

This project kept me busy through July and the start of August. Someone ordered 30 of these horned crowns for a high school color guard act. I’m not sure what the act is exactly, I guess it’s bull-themed. This was the second such large order actually; someone else ordered a similar number for a different school last year. I guess I’ve stumbled into a niche market?

Now I’m geared up to make some new stuff.

Here, have some photos of a laser cutter in action! This is one of the things that’s keeping my super busy this month. Someone ordered 30 of these horned headbands, to be used in as I understand it a color guard act. So I’m making these as quickly as I can.

The other thing that’s keeping me busy this month is apartment hunting. The place I’m in now is being gutted to become condos as of September, and so I’m having Fun Times with Craigslist.

I grabbed some friends for a photo shoot today! I took like actually 500 photos so it’ll take a couple days to fully go through them, but here are some fun ones that might not get used in product photos because of having multiple designs mixed and also because wow they’re ridiculous.

Whee my friends are great.

Oh, also, I know I’d said I’d been hoping to take some chainmail tail commissions soon, but last weekend when I was hiking in the mountains in North Carolina to see the eclipse I sprained my wrist. (I slipped and fell on a rock while swimming in Sliprock Creek. I’m not even kidding.) The eclipse was awesome, but hiking back up a mountain with an injured wrist was pretty bad. Glad it wasn’t my ankle though! Anyway, I got it looked at when I got back to civilization. I’ll probably be in a splint for another week or so, and I’m probably gonna hold off on chain-mailleing for another week or two so I don’t mess it up long-term. I know there were a couple people who’d been asking about tails coming up, and I’m sorry that this will delay them more, but such is life.

Anyway, the next few days will involve me going through and updating photos on a bunch of my Etsy listings, and posting a couple new ones that had been waiting on photos. Expect a bit of an influx of photos everywhere I am online.