The Midsummer's Night Masquerade : 10/28/09

Quick tip...

Alright, so I just learned why liquid gold leaf is stored in thick glass jars....'cause it melts plastic. Seriously.:/

I've had this jar of liquid gold leaf for about two years now and have only used it a few times. When I tried to open it lastnight I couldn't get the tin lid off. So I've surmised that I must have gotten some of the gold leaf onto the threading of either the glass jar or the lid and once the lid was screwed shut, it dried solid. So, I ended up having to have a hole punched into the lid just to get at the product inside. In an attempt to save as much of the product as I could, I stored the rest in three little plastic bead storage jars and proceeded to work from the jar with the least amount of product in it. I left them sitting on my wood floor with lids tightly screwed on, lastnight.
Just picked up the little jar with the least amount in it to find that the plastic bottom had completely melted away and the gold leaf had gunked to the wood flooring -crap, right? Oh yea! ;/

I'm going to try to use nail polish remover with acetone in it to remove it from the floor, but I'm concerned about the possibility of any noxious/toxic fumes from the colliding of two powerful chemicals. As it is, you're not supposed to inhale too much of the liquid gold leaf fumes, it's dangerous and highly toxic.

After this mask is done and I'm finished using the gold leaf for this project, I'm tossing those two jars before they completely melt and make a mess, too.

I'll definitely be picking up another jar of liquid gold leafing as it's got a gorgeous and rich finish to it and it's so much faster, cleaner, and easier for me to use than gold leaf foil, but next time I'll be more careful about getting the liquid in the threading.

Hope this is useful info. for someone and if you know how to get liquid gold leaf out of wood, please speak up!

~Sphinx

Mask ramblings..

So far, this Peacock mask is turning out to be one of my favorites. I've done a couple of things differently with this mask than I did with my first Peacock mask and I'm really liking it.:)

I'm starting to feel like I should make myself one.:D

Yes, I do not have any bird masks of my own. The only mask that I've kept for myself is the Amethyst Fairy mask I made last year. I've got some of my older paper masks still, but I've only still got them because no one has bought them, yet.

I've got plans to eventually make a very ornate and some-what large Phoenix mask for myself and at some point I also want to make a white/gold bird mask. Every time I've made one of these bird masks and it's all white with only the gold accents painted, I can't help but think how nice it would look to just leave it be like that.

I'll have more photos up either later today or tomorrow after I mail the mask out.

Peacock mask Commission WIP IV

At this stage I've painted the mask several shades of a solid blue first and then from there I started in on the details of the eyes of the peacock feathers.

By this point I've added another layer or two of a sealant over the paint job.

A view of the very top of the mask, just the tips:

This is the backside of the mask after I attached the handle.

The handle will be decorated and painted and the backside of the mask will be covered in a decorative brocade fabric with a braided trim. I will also be adding peacock tail and sword feathers, as well as gems.