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Cynthia Mayeaux sent this clue:
Boy, this was fun.
Each bead glued in place.
Tried a new material to carve out the face.
Touches of leather and a few Jobs' Tears,
Your gourds on its way, in the mail today.
Hope no one guesses who this gourd goes to :-)

 

Her mask went to Betty Hickman:

 

I got my mask from Cynthia.. Well worth the wait.
This has got to be the most awesome gourd mask I've
seen yet. She used 2 pieces of gourd glued together
and a strip of leather hiding the seam finishing with
pony beads and pyroed beads that look like could be
bone. First thing it reminded me of was King Tut, the
way it fans out around the face. The nose, eyes, and
mouth are sculpted from clay? She's added just the
right amount of turquoise and lavender paint. The beads
are beautiful. Now I've seen Job's tears in hand, I
must get some. The pyro is perfect, has seed beads
glued down the center of his face, pony and seed beads
around the eyes, seed beads around the mouth. I
see a lot of work in this mask and I shall give him a
place of honor to hang proudly on my living room wall.
Thank you Cynthia for this wonderful mask.
Betty
I got my mask from Cynthia. Well worth the wait.

..........

 

 

 

 
Why thank you Betty, I was starting to worry that
it would never get there.
She used 2 pieces of gourd glued together and a
strip of leather hiding the seam finishing with pony
beads and pyroed beads that look like could be bone.

Yes, I used two different gourds, cutting and
sanding so one nested into the other creating a protruding face and stylized hair. The fancy beads are bone that I purchased, so I don't know if they're pyro or stain.

The design is my own interpretation of a dance
mask from Zaire, believe me I took some very broad liberties with this design.
The nose, eyes, and mouth are sculpted from clay?
Ahh, now here is the experiment. My job takes me
to graphic and sign shows, and I picked up this material that is a
high density urethane (foam board). It's rather marvelous stuff and after using it, I would recommend it as something that can be used on gourds. There is a website you can visit to learn more about it. I have no idea of price, size, minimums etc, but plan to find out.
http://www.precisionboard.com/

 

I carved with a jack knife the eyes, nose and
mouth. Then laid sandpaper on the gourd and sanded down the back side of the pieces so there was a fairly close fit to the curve of the gourd. I used wood glue to bond and wood putty to fill in the seams. In hind site, I think I would have made them thinner so they didn't stick out so far, and I would have used a sealer/primer on them. The company that sells it has sealers and stuff, but they weren't giving that stuff away as free samples . The cool thing about the sealers and finishing materials is you can create about any type of texture you want using techniques that include sponges, tools,
fingers, whatever your imagination can come up with. It is paintable, you can apply gilt to it and other things that I've forgotten.
The board comes in different densities, I used a grade calle PB-15 ('cuz it was free). It's kinda messy, but heck, not any worse than gourd dust. I did use a mask when working with it. I like
whittling, so thought this was a great experiment for me. It's light weight so would also make good material for feet or bases if you don't want to add any weight.
To put the seed beads into the nose I just used a pyro point and lightly
melted an indent, added a touch of glue and stuck the bead in.
Now I've seen Job's tears in hand, I must get some.
I'll have them to sell at the end of the upcoming growing season!
Thank you Cynthia for this wonderful mask.
Betty