Today, we made our masks ready to be further designed and decorated after the Christmas break! We did this using plaster of Paris! We paired up (James & Rob/Charlie & Ollie/Lorna & I) for the application of plaster of Paris required another person. We chose to mould these masks from our faces using plaster of Paris as in the times of Commedia, the actors masks were moulded from their faces so than each mask was unique and belonged to them. These masks only fitted them. This would make these masks very authentic to the original Commedia Dell'arte style.
Firstly, we applied coconut oil to our faces especially to our eyebrows to protect our faces from becoming dangerously attached the dry, hard plaster of Paris. This meant that when it came to pulling the dry mask off, it wouldn't pull of skin/eyebrows off. After applying the oil, we lied on our backs and let our partners put a damp, folded tissue on our eyes to prevent the plaster of Paris attaching to our eyelids. We then got plastered by our partners! They applied three layers of the plaster of Paris to our faces from the hairline down to the upper lip. They applied three layers as only one or two would be very fragile so three layers gave the mask extra support. When applying the plaster of Paris over our nostrils, we had to apply a damp tissue over our nostrils to prevent the plaster of Paris leaving into our noses which can be very harmful. For this period of time, we had to only breath through our mouths.
Next lesson, we will look at the rest of the stock characters, decide on our characters and think about what to add to our masks!
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