I'm not sure just what I'll be yet, and someone is going to lend me a dress this year so I'm not making one... but I am going to put a lot of work into this year's mask. It isn't close to being done yet, but I'll put in an update here and there.
Now, it doesn't look like much, but the beading alone has already taken me twenty five hours in all. So... it's pretty.
I'll be gluing the black and red strips of beads around the edge, so the blue ones will hang free over the forehead and my cheeks.
The beads were made with bead weaving, and that's a lot of knots for every millimeter. It's crazy, but a lot of fun. If you don't know what bead weaving is, here's a picture of my loom. It has a few things on it I never finished.
Um... yes it still has the stickers on it from when I was younger.
Here's the pattern for the forehead hang downs. It isn't too clear, but I think you can make it out. If not;
1 Black, 1 Red, 1 Cylinder(1), 1 Green, 1 Blue, 1 Cylinder(2), 1 Green, 1 Blue, 1 Cylinder(3), 1 Green, 1 Blue, 1 Cylinder(4), 1 Green, 1 Blue, 1 Green, 1 Blue, 1 Green, through Cylinder(4), 1 Green, 1 Blue, through Cylinder (3), 1 Green, 1 Blue, through Cylinder(2), 1 Green, 1 Blue, through Cylinder(1). Then you weave the first red and black into the horizontal threads of the loom.
>.> it was fun. I felt like one of those people that file things for a job, singing the ABC's in my head again and again. Only with colors.
Finally, here's what I have so far. The mask itself was put on with these material strip thingies, a friend and I wet them and molded them onto my face. It hurt a bit pulling it off, but it came out great. I still need to file it a bit more, like around the eyes.
I'm thinking about painting the left side of the face blue, like the cylinders, and the other side black. I'll either have the paint glittery, or leave it plane and then put blue glitter on the cheeks.
I know for sure that I'll have ribbon come off around the headband, so I can put it into a cascade crown.
I may lampwork something together if needed, but I don't want it to be too pretty.
Though I'm not all certain yet... I'll put up more pictures as I work on it and maybe one with me all dressed up. This will be the first Festival I'm participating in, so I can't wait to see how it all goes.
(Also... if you want to see the full size image, you can click the pictures. I did this so they wouldn't slow anyone or possibly stretch the borders.)