How would you describe your crafts?

I'm a mask maker and a prop maker. Which means, I'm pretty much a mad scientist out of the AC groups.

Q: A what?

A: You heard me. Mad Scientist. I take techniques from other disciplines, like armor-making or sculpting, or even traditional brush-and-canvas painting; materials from yet more arts- leather, fabric, mache, plaster, polymer clays; and combine them up with some stitching, some chemistry, maybe a bit of paint, some red dye #2, and a bit of creative lightning, and I turn people into monsters.

Q: Monsters. now I know you've gone off the deep end. We should just cancel this who-

A: Yes, monsters. And gods. And Devils. And maybe a few angels in there as well. I make people into what they want to be, whether it's for a performance, or for a collection, or even just for one night of fantasy in a masquerade ball.

Q: Ok, now you're making a bit more sense. What about the props?

A: Not just props. Treasures. Antiquities. Ever read a book, and have one item in it just stick out in your head? Just stick there and become an obsession? To the point that you had to figure out what it looked like exactly? Had to know how it operated, down to the last detail? That's the kind of thing that I like to build. The weird odd bits you'd find in some pulp explorer's trophy case.

Q: So, are there any particular themes or influences you base all of this off of?

A: Some of it's a bit standard rote- there's the usual archetypes that most mask makers cover- partly because they're in such demand, and partly because they're such standards of mask making that they almost scream to be done. . Like the Elements. And the Seasons, though in both cases, I've tried to put a different spin on them than the standard interpretations. I'm also working on some Tarot-inspired designs. Most of my own designs though draw on influences from a lot of different areas- horror, anime, fantasy, the occult... I try to go all over the map.



Where do you get your inspirations from?

Mythology's big for me, just like it is for any mask maker. I love being able to bring characters and creatures from legends and stories to life. Fiction's just as big of an influence as well- I certainly don't think I can get away without listing Lovecraft among others as a major influence on some of my work. And anime- gah, I don't think i could live with myself if i didn't at least mention Kakurenbo as an influence. And movies, and TV, and in one case a piece of music, and other artists (Bosch. God, I love Bosch.) hell- with me, it may be better to ask what's not an influence, because I end up drawing on all sorts of stuff when I go to work.

As for preconceived ideas, it really depends on the individual piece for me- sometimes, I am starting with a preconceived idea, but just as often, I'm just taking a blank domino mask, grabbing out the paints, and going at it as abstract art.


How long have you been making your crafts?

Off and on since I was seventeen. That's thirteen years ago now. I'd gotten a job for the summer and fall doing retail work at a display and costume shop in my hometown, and ended up spending some of my paycheck on some simple blank plastic masks on a lark. Then I started decorating them- just simple stuff, some paintwork, crude attempts at Celtic knot work. I did that kind of stuff on occasion here and there, but then it got serious about six years ago.

I was on a bout of unemployment, and in between job interviews and applications was bored out of my mind. So, one day, I decided to take a piece off of one of the leather hides my fiancée kept around for costume-making and see just how hard it was to mold my own leather mask. Yes, I realize I pick some weird things to do out of boredom. After a couple of failed attempts, some researching on the internet into methods of making hardened leather armor, and a few disastrous experiments, I finally ended up with a somewhat passable mask. It took another six months before I managed to refine the process down towards what I use today for molding, and since then, I've been trying to constantly experiment with different designs, paints, and anything else I can apply to it. About a year after that first success, I started vending at Norwescon, first as part of a friend's booth, and then later on with my own booth. Now, I'm doing more and more shows, as well as the website, so it's pretty much the involvement of a full-time job. Hopefully one of these days it'll also become my only job and I'll actually be able to support myself and my family with it, but I'm not quite there yet.

Can you describe the steps that you take to construct a mask?

I use a hot water-process for shrinking and molding, onto a glass positive mold. It results in a good, hard finish on a blank mask, which is great for adding the later cutouts for eyes or other bits. As for attachments, if I'm doing a piece like the Green Man, I'm typically using Barge cement for an adhesive, which is about the best I've found for working with leather. For paints, I pretty much stick to Jacquard's Lumiere and Neopaque lines- they bond well to leather, without the need for heat-setting, and they also blend well for producing more complex colors. There's a couple of other steps I'm leaving out of this, but they're easy enough to discover through trial and error.

Several of your creations such as Dagon start with gas masks- is it easier to modify something than start from scratch?

Actually, I find it harder to do a modification piece like the gasmasks- you have to work within certain constraints for what the original piece will be able to take, and there's no room for error- mess up, and there's a lot more expense than a simple leather mask, which can just be re-cut, repainted, or thrown out. I get my gasmasks from all over the place- sometimes via rummage sales, sometimes Ebay, or other times friends of mine will find them cheap somewhere and pick them up for me. With the gasmasks, the original mask shape itself just about always ends up influencing the final piece. It's no coincidence that all of my gasmasks are named for different gods, demons or monsters- gasmasked figures are, in a lot of ways, our modern versions of those nightmares- I'm just putting the nightmare onto the surface of it.


Several masks such as Green Man - Summer are made with leather, what other materials do you work with?

Leather's my primary material, but I've also worked in rubber (both sheet rubber and the gasmasks), plaster, kneadatite (for those not familiar, it's a two-part plastic epoxy. Lighter than polymer clay, and it cures at room temperature instead of needing to be baked.), polymer clay, and paper mache.


How difficult is it to make a mask such as Plaster III- Diesel?

Pretty hard- Diesel took a good it of planning, since it also meant modifying the original mold I was using to create a hollow for molding the box-area over the mouth, and tubes to form the exhaust pipes around. It was a good challenge though, and i hope to do something similar to it in the future, with a bit cleaner results. I'd love to do more work with plaster like that, or with other materials, like liquid latex or different polymer clays and epoxy. I've even got some ideas for precious-metal-clay jewelry, if I can ever find the time or spare cash to execute them.


Arcane box is a bit different from your masks, where do see yourself going with your crafts?


Well, to tell the truth, the Arcane box isn't my first non-mask piece- it's just the first that I've had decent images of to post up on DA and my own website. I've been doing small props bits here and there the whole time. Currently I've got another box in the works as well- this one a bit more steampunkish, based on the good old tale of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. As well as a cane/swagger stick and some other items. Hopefully, I'll be able to get some good photography of pieces this time around, so that I can share more of these designs online. I love doing items like this as side projects- they're a great way to explore different techniques that I'll later carry back over into mask making, and it also lets my imagination go nuts in new and different ways.

What shows or exhibitions, do you participate in.?

Well, this year, I'm going to be vending at the following so far:
Norwescon ([link])
Vampire Ball PDX ([link])
Sakura-Con ([link])

Norwescon's a general fantasy and science-fiction convention. Among other things, it hosts a huge Masquerade event that draws in a ton of very talented costumers. (I usually find myself taking notes for new mask ideas like mad during the show.) Norwescon is the first con I ever did, and that's one of the big reasons I keep coming back as a vendor. It's also pretty good business there,

The Vampire Ball is a great event- lush costuming, decadent environment- it's a Gothic masquerade ball, held, as the name implies, in Portland. It's always a blast to attend, and to be honest, vending it is my big excuse to go play dress-up for the night. Not that it's not profitable as well, by any means. It's just plain a blast.

Sakura-Con is easily the biggest anime convention in the Northwest- huge number of attendees. This'll only be my second year as a vendor, and after last year, I'm coming loaded for bear- by the last day of the convention, I was getting desperate to find enough stock to keep my table covered- almost everything that could sell did. It was completely draining, but it was also such fun to do. Not to mention all the cool cos play I got to see walking past the table.


All of these are events I've done previously, and they're all ones I plan to continue doing in the future. And of course, I'm trying to keep my eyes open for other events as well. In fact, readers, if you're in the Pacific Northwest, and you'd like to have us vending at an event this year, then please, drop me a line, and let me know about it.

How do you market your creations?

I market everything through my website of course, [link], as well as DA. Also, you can see the above for some of the events it'll be selling at this year. I keep going back and forth about doing Etsy or Ebay sales as well, but at this point, I'd be spreading myself thin trying to keep up with everything online.

Five years from now, with a little luck, I could see myself doing this for a living. As it is, I'm getting closer and closer. I'd love to be taking on at least 6 to ten events a year in the future, instead of the current three or four. I'd also like to be expanding my range of mediums a bit more- if you've seen my gallery then you've probably seen the recent experiments with plaster. I want to keep going hat way- I'm not about to stop with the leather or the gasmasks by any means, but I definitely want to keep working with new ideas as well, and that probably means new media that will support some of those ideas.


Do you belong to any organizations and what benefits do they provide?

Well, let's see. I'm a proud member of:

Dr. Steel's army of Toy Soldiers
The Cult of Bacon (the food, not the actor)
Cultists for a Better Innsmouth
Arcanists Unlimited
Runagate Rampant
No Verbs Allowed (formerly)


Oh, wait. You meant artistic organizations? Or groups dealing remotely with what I do? No, none presently.



*Winneganfake

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Male/United States
Deviant since Jan 18, 2006, 12:49 PM



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