Creative Chronicles Number 5: The Mask making workshop.
- Alexandra Louise Harris
- Nov 2
- 5 min read
Transcript from The Creative Chronicles Youtube video: An unorthodox name for a vlog
It’s been a while since I have recorded a creative chronicles episode, but I received a lovely
email the other day from someone asking about how I make music and if I could provide a bit more information on my recording equipment. Therefore I thought I’d start adding to the story.
The other thing is that I’ve had some goals this year that I'm close to completing. The first was to run another mask making workshop, and this time we did a Halloween one to celebrate Paganini’s birthday. The second thing I wanted to do was a market stall or a book stall. That’s going to be happening next weekend, very exciting. I also wanted to do a school visit. Hopefully I can still squeeze that in before the end of the year, but I’m not quite sure yet. The last goal, however, is the most challenging…finishing another draft of the third Violetta book also involving the musuc. So in the fourth week of this series, I’ll talk a bit more about my recording equipment and the microphones I use.
Anyway, as I film this episode, I’ve just got home from a concert. It’s been a big weekend, but a really fun weekend, and in this episode I’ll share with you all the processes of making and preparing the masks for the workshop. I drew them using my iPad, on the same program I use for the book illustrations from episode one of the chronicles. I’ve created a Beetlejuice mask, with stripes and snakes that you can see here…and there’s a musical quote in each.
The mask workshop yesterday was such fun and I hope you enjoy seeing all the lead up to it. If you are watching this in realtime you can download the masks for free below. I’ll probably keep them there for a while as they can come in handy for all kinds of occasions.
Now, here comes the masquerade. Beetlejuice, a spooky butterfly and then we have Cruella de vil. She always frightened me as a child so I think she qualifies for a Halloween character…with lots of sequins. Then there’s the Wicked witch inspired by the movie, and this is me trying to fly. Of course, no Halloween is complete without a pumpkin head. Then there’s another butterfly, because I love butterflies, and finally Ghostbusters.
The next challenge was that once I had created all the masks, I needed something to hang them from as a display. Rather than creating something plain and black, which is what I initially thought of, I decided to paint some prints. This is my Paganini version of the steps in Montmartre, I'm never quite know how to pronounce that, and you can see the cat, like Le Chat Noir.
Something else I’ve been working on is a paper mache version of a spooky Mexican Day of the Dead mask. This one I actually put on my face, therefore it’s very important to put pawpaw or vaseline on first…otherwise it’s very difficult to get off. Yep, it takes a certain amount of commitment. Then comes painting and decorating, I unpick flowers and glue back together, more jewels and of course some music. On this one, is Paganini’s witch’s dance, which you will hear in the background of the video.
After that, you can see me cutting out all the mask images. These are the ones you can download, but the eyes aren’t quite so easy to carve out. It takes time and care, so that you don’t cut your fingers with the small blade knife. Some shopping for sparkly bits, feathers and lots of jewels and rhinestones…and although I didn't find the black and gold pear drops I was looking for, I found something very similar.
As I mentioned earlier, each mask has a musical design, a quote from the movie 'Wicked', on the witch one, and 'Halloween' on the pumpkin head. I made three of each kit, but butterflies proved to be the most popular so I needed to create more of those.
Putting the kits together was a fun bit as the afternoon sky glowed outside our lounge room
window.
Next was icing the cupcakes and making the toppers. I’m not an expert, but I thought the
strawberry crisps could make them look slightly spookier. On the day of the mask workshop, I just needed to get everything together. The cup cake toppers are done…batty, batty bats. So cute. I just had to chop some vegetables and then I was ready to go.
For the workshop, I was so lucky to find a venue all set up for art making. It has paints and everything you could possibly want. I took all the feathers, all the sparkly bits, the kits, and everyone got stuck in and became very creative. The best thing was that all the masks turned out different, so those jewelled buttons of varying shapes proved to be great after all.
So what did you do for Halloween? Have you got a costume or a mask? As you can see,
although I did the drawings the results were really different and very creative and I learnt a lot too about how I could do things better next time. Some people were cutting the feathers which made a lot of sense as they lay flat and gluing them onto the backing board, rather than flipping the mask upside down when it was still wet…Not a sensible thing to do. But like everything I’m always learning and getting ideas. I loved all the colours and how different they were.
Next week we have the concert in Hobart, Halloween Spooktacular for 5-12 year olds and I’m setting up a table in the foyer with books and masks, so I’ll be sharing that with you next week.
Until then, I hope you have some fun things for Halloween and please share with me if you like and of course, don’t forget you can download those masks for free.
So until next time, Happy music making everyone!
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