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Creepy Cupcakes – Halloween Things: Cracked and Broken: Long Nosed …

  • March 20, 2010 7:21 pm
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Ha! Finally I “finished” the antiqued, venetian-inspired, long nosed mask I’ve been working on since October. well, started in October. Maybe even September.

The quotation marks around “finished” are not for decoration. I’m not sure I like it yet, and there is likely much more decorative work to be done.

But I like it enough that I might post it over at the Darkside Challenge; it looks marvelously broken and cast aside. As it is it would make a wonderful, faux-antique addition to my decor … I can take a few days to decide if it needs to be fancier, I think.

This is another instance where I wish I had a real camera, and not just the one on my phone. the mask just looks dirty in these pictures – it actually has a really fabulous crackled porcelain finish that make it look genuinely antique. Much of the paper mache finish is sloppy, but with the crackle glaze it looks like large cracks. the base color is a blue shade of white (leftover Valspar Interior Satin latex paint from a bathroom whites-on-whites paint job).

Enough talking… more details:

  1. I started with this template from Michaels and a single, already read issue of Creative Loafing (in other words, one of those free, local, newsprinted ‘what’s going on about town’ magazines)
  2. I cut about 10 of the rounder mask pattern out of the newspaper, and used a greatly reduced version of Stolloween’s mache paste recipe – more or less. I add water to mine if the consistency isn’t as thin as I like
  3. I paper mached one pre-cut newsprint mask on top of another, using a styrofoam head I happen to have about as the shaping form
  4. Let dry overnight; once dry, I used a hole punch and a utility knife tool to cut the ribbon notches and the eye holes, respectively
  5. The tricky bit – I used coathanger wire and tape to build out a long nose form; had I been more ambitious, I would have used paper mache mud (recipe available at Stolloween’s site, linked above) and made a nicer shape – I’m still adjusting to using paper mache for art rather than elementary school projects
  6. Painted the finished flat black (unnecessary, but I found it easier to spot the rough spots when I did this) and worked with a combination of more paper mache and masking tape to smooth out the rough edges
  7. Painted with extra paint I had about the house
  8. Used the porcelain crackle medium, purchased at Lowes (check out their ‘oops’ paint section if you are looking for neat mask colors for cheap) – following all instructions in their brochure
  9. I finished with the Valspar ‘antique’ glaze. this is basically black-brown glaze. I think any thin paint would do the trick; next time I do this kind of project I’ll test that theory and let you know
  10. Tie ribbons to each ribbon notch and – viola – mask

Creepy Cupcakes – Halloween Things: Cracked and Broken: Long Nosed …