
Hi! Its Melissa again. We are now halfway through the art-a-thon. Hope you are all having fun.
The prompt now is to create a mask or other scary wearable. Humans have worn masks for over 9000 years and quite possibly even much longer than that. Masks can vary in usage. They can be used for ceremonies, rituals, protection, entertainment and disguise. Masks can be very simple or even very elaborate.
Halloween masks and costumes in particular originated centuries ago during the Celtic festival of Samhain. Samhain is a celebration that honors the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter. It was believed that, during this period, the veil between the living world and the world of the dead was thin. This allowed the spirits to pass through to our world. Food was left to welcome ancestor’s spirits. Evil spirits also would pass through so the Celts would dress up in costumes and masks to scare away and trick the evil spirits.
I will be making 2 masks today. For the first I purchased a skeletal mask that I will paint on and give it a calavera look. For the second mask I purchased a hard mask to use as a mold to create a clay mask using paper clay . I molded the mask a few weeks ago since it would take a couple of weeks to dry. While it dried it cracked in several places however rather than scrapping it and doing a new one I decided to use it as is and just incorporate the cracks in my design.
Below are pictures of the masks I will be painting.

The mask I will paint in a calavera style.

The mask I made using paper clay.

The hard mask I used as a mold.