Mask-Making, Part 2

I love getting to do the hands-on stuff!  Part of me could easily give up the writing and performing and become a props person.

A gorgeous early spring day, and Fiona, Kristen, Noah, and the long-lost Samantha have come over to make more masks and read the latest draft of the script (or the first few scenes thereof).

Kristen and Fiona have decorated WBW a little, and we've decided to also give her horns using the talons from an owl skeleton I found in my raspberry patch.  I'm also going to make her a necklace from the wishbone and some vertebrae.

Noah, who will be playing Coyote, has volunteered his face for today's smear-and-wrap.  The challenge is that Coyote is part human, part animal, and we're not quite sure how to pull off the snout.

We decide to build the face out first using an old toilet paper roll, and then once the mask is dry, add more plaster to make it look more streamlined and dog-like.

Noah is a good sport about all of this, and plus, did I mention it's a gorgeous day for lying in the sun?

The other big issue to solve is how to make a manatee.  I've got chicken wire, fiberglass window screening, floral wire, and more plaster, but manatees are so lumpy and shapeless, it doesn't seem like we're headed in the right direction.  

I think maybe I could stuff an old sleeping bag and paint it.  Still doesn't seem quite right.

Then Fiona suggests we move down a dimension and rather than try making a 3-D manatee, she could just project an image of one on her art room wall, trace it, and back it with cardboard.  Then we can paint it, and make it look however we want.

Given that we're just doing a reading, this makes a lot of sense, and also seems like a great idea for the Grasshopper Of The Apocalypse.  More on that later.