sugar skull mask

this year i was asked to participate in the sugar skull mask show at work. i was so excited. i believe this was the second year the hispanic resource network group put together this show. they have a limited budget, therefore limited masks; so they ask a select number of artists from different departments around the company. i had a couple of ideas immediately, but went with a more traditional look for the sugar skull. i love sugar skulls by the way. i started by cutting off the jaws of the mask (i forgot to take a picture before i cut them off and put down a base white coat front and back.) i painted my design on the skull next and drilled holes at the forehead for the flowers to be added later. at the same time i started making little red and pink resin cast skulls that i put as the center of the roses (you can't really see them in the final piece because of the rose petals, but i still love how the resin skulls turned out.) next i started gluing on all those tiny little gems over my painted designs. originally i was going to cover the entire white part as well in gems, but i stopped because i liked the look with just the colored gems. and finally i glued the rose headdress into place. the show turned out great - we have some incredibly talented people here at work. happy (early) day of the dead (dia de los muertos.)