Project by Susan Begin from Olmsted Falls, Ohio.
Susan knows firsthand that when one door closes, another one opens. With a background in illustration, she landed a job as a craft designer with a company that specialized in craft projects for children. But when the economy faltered, so did the business, and Susan found herself out of work. It was the perfect time for this out-of-work designer to become a stay-at-home mom to her two children. Now Susan combines the culturally themed designs she used at work with gourds to create playful, decorative masks and sculptures in all shapes and sizes.
Materials:
half of a cleaned gourd for mask
paper clay
raffia
twine
glass beads
acrylic paint
water-based varnish.
gourdling (small bottle gourd)
copper wire
colored wire
wood bead
wood base
acrylic paint
acrylic varnish
Steps:
1. Begin with a clean, dried, hard-shell gourd, preferably as round as possible. Draw a line in pencil around the gourd from the stem to the base and back, as a guide for cutting it in half.
2. Wearing a respirator and eye protection, cut the gourd in half using an electric mini jigsaw.
3. Discard inner contents of gourd and immerse the two halves in a solution of warm soapy bleach water. Scrub the interior of the gourd clean.
4. While the gourd is drying, sketch a design for the mask. Determine shape of eyes, mouth and decorative design.
5. Using one half of the gourd, sketch the design directly onto the surface of the gourd.
6. Cut out the eye shapes and the mouth using a jigsaw, again, wearing a respirator.
7. Use a wood-burning tool to draw over the pencil marks of the surface design.
8. Using an awl, punch holes on either side of the face, approximately halfway down. These holes will be for the twine used to hang the mask.
9. Punch several more holes along the top edge of the mask, evenly spaced. These holes will be used for attaching the raffia.
10. Separate about three or four strands of raffia for each hole. Fold each group of strands in half, so that you have a loop at one end.
11. Push the loop through the hole from the backside of the mask until you have a one-inch loop protruding on the front. Now bring the other end of the raffia over the top of the mask and through the loop (a Lark's head knot). Pull the knot tight.
12. Repeat steps 10 and 11 for each hole (except for the initial two holes).
13. Cut three 3-foot lengths of twine. Thread them through the initial two holes that you punched, so that they dangle on either side of the face. Knot them on the outside, so that you have secured the twine in place. These will serve to hang the piece on the wall.
14. Thread glass beads onto the ends of the twine, so that they dangle like earrings.
15. Knead a golfball-sized chunk of paper clay and roll it out into a snake. Place the clay along the hairline of the mask and slightly push it in between each raffia knot. Allow the clay to dry overnight.
16. Once the clay has dried, you may need to glue it to the mask if it has not completely adhered to the surface.
17. Using acrylic paints, paint the mask surface as well as the surface of the paper clay. Entire face will be painted blue; design around eyes will be purple, green and black; paint white dots around mouth. Apply varnish over dry paint.
18. Arrange raffia hair and trim to desired length.
Website: www.begindesigns.com
E-mail: beginart@sbcglobal.net
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