Pretty/Tough Mask by Linda Edkins Wyatt

Hi! Linda Edkins Wyatt here, with my interpretation of StencilGirl's mask theme. I thought long and hard about what kind of mask to make: a Halloween or Mardi Gras festive mask, a Tragedy & Comedy mask, or maybe a medical mask, since I spent the last 10 months wearing a medical mask daily for my job in a New York City public hospital.

 

But, as I was paying the cashier at my local drugstore, I saw a poster of an eye makeup ad that was really bold and unconventional. It got me thinking about how we use makeup, hairdos, tattoos, clothing, and jewelry as part of the mask, we put on daily to present ourselves to the world. Some people go with a natural look, using makeup to enhance their good features and minimize the imperfections. Others take things a few steps further, with extreme eye makeup, striking tattoos, and elaborate hairstyles.

 

An an oil self-portrait from around 2005 was the basis for the mask

I thought back to an oil self-portrait that I had painted years ago, around 2005, when I was having some serious health issues. I looked sullen and unhappy and painted myself exactly the way I felt. I had been taking a medication that had the side-effect of being unable to sleep without a sleep-inducing medications. I was frustrated and bone-weary. It was a vicious cycle of exhaustion and anxiety. Fortunately, I had photographed the painting, so for this project, I printed two copies of the painting from my inkjet printer, using one for the canvas and saving one for the mask.

A printout of the 2005 portrait was trimmed and glued to an unfinished 12" x 12" canvas

I took an unfinished 12"x12" canvas that hadn't turned out the way I envisioned, and glued one portrait on top using matte medium. I added recycled, empty teabags to join the printout to the canvas, then stenciled until it merged  and I could no longer tell where the printout ended and the canvas began.

Recycled, empty teabags were glued to the canvas, uniting the background and the printout

The printout on the canvas with all teabags added

My Spiral from the Lemurian Garden collection was added with Speckled Egg ink to soften the darkness of the teabags

To further lighten the teabags and unite the elements,
the Tapestry stencil was added using Spun Sugar ink

Once the background was complete, I cut out the face from the second printout

My idea was to create a removable mask for the portrait: a tough but pretty mask. So, with the second self-portrait printout, I again used matte medium, but this time adhered it to a piece of rusted fabric. I used flesh-toned paint the way you would use a makeup base, and pinks (the way you would use blush and lipstick). The eye makeup was inspired by one of the makeup ads I saw in the drugstore.

Rusted cotton was the background for the removable mask.

The eyes were enhanced using Posca Pens

Paint and Posca Pens simulated foundation, blush, lipstick, and eye makeup

A comparison of the finished background with the unfinished mask

I gessoed over the glasses perched atop my head in the original painting,
then added wild blue hair. After trying several stencils for a neck tattoo,
I settled on part of a Sacred Heart by Laurie Milka

 Once I had the face and hair painted, I used a plate to draw a circular shape and added extensions at the side to attach the mask to the canvas.

I pinned the painted rusty fabric, along with some felt padding and a purple batik backing, and cut the circle, leaving strips at the sides to attach the mask to the canvas.

Here you can see the "quilt sandwich" layers in the mask

I lightly quilted the mask and stitched the edges closed, adding pink chalk lines and pink stitching radiating out from the face.

The pink chalk lines were intended to be guidelines for the quilting, but I decided to leave the pink chalk, and also use pink for the thread to contrast with the blue hair.

A few spots of Velcro on the side of the canvas and on the mask tabs made it easy to remove and attach.

Velcro tabs were the perfect solution so that the mask would be easily removable.

It was pretty bizarre to try outlandish makeup, hairdos, jewelry, and tattoos on myself! I tried various crown ideas, a few different stencils to suggest a neck tattoo, and gave my mask-self wild blue hair. You can see in the photo below that the features on the mask and the canvas under-painting match exactly.

On the right, the painted canvas, with an understated version of me. On the left, the mask shows what I might look like if I let loose and embraced bold makeup and hair. You can see that the two versions match perfectly since they were based on the same self-portrait painting.

 The final touches were adding a crown, made from Gwen Lafluer's Art Deco Borders stencil done with embossing powder on rusted fabric, fake blue and green gems around the edges of the mask circle, earrings of Turkmen Jewelry Parts from Gwen Lafluer's website, a few strips of turquoise washi tape, and a cross atop the crown, formed from a section of Laurie Milka's Pilgrimage to the Renaissance.

Here's a video (with music) on the whole process, start to finish. Enjoy!

Stencils used:

Linda Edkins Wyatt, Lemurian Spiral

Kristie Taylor, Tapestry

Gwen Lafluer, Art Deco Borders

Laurie Milka, Four Sacred Hearts

Laurie Milka, Pilgrimage to the Renaissance

Additional resource:
For the jewelry, I incorporated bits of Turkmen Jewelry Parts from Gwen Lafluer's website
Inks, paints and Posca Pens from The Ink Pad NYC

 

UpCycled Picnic Tray DIY by Linda Edkins Wyatt

Hi! Linda Edkins Wyatt here, sharing how I took an old, dilapidated serving tray and transformed it into an adorable, vintage-looking picnic tray! I used paper that I designed using all five of my Lemurian Garden stencils, which was then cut, carefully arranged, glued, and sealed on the tray to give the effect of a heirloom quilt.

The serving tray that I started out with looked pretty sad: it had holes on the surface and in the corners from wear and tear, but the frame and legs were still solid. I had tucked it in a corner and thought, "It's still functional...someday I'll fix this." When the StencilGirl theme of Home Decor came up, I knew it was time to breathe new life into the old tray.

The damaged serving tray—before its transformation.

I thought about painting it and stenciling on top but decided that I'd try a pieced paper patchwork effect instead of painting directly on the tray. I have spent much of my life around quilts and fabric, but this time instead of using cloth and stitching a design, I decided to use paper for the quilted effect.

I had a beautiful sheet of paper that I made as a sample for the July 15 debut of my stencils. I scanned the painting, then made printouts from my color ink jet printer. (Click HERE to see my full post about the stencil debut.)

I started with a big sheet of white watercolor paper and added my Lemurian Stencils in pastel colors.

 

Here's the final painting that I scanned and reprinted on paper:

In this allover design, you can pick out the leaf, tulip, lily, spiral and pansy stencils.

First, before I could beautify the tray, I needed to fix the holes in it. I filled in the holds with DAP Plastic Wood. After the fill dried, I sanded it smooth.

Next, I "auditioned" various prints and solids to go with the paper I made from my Lemurian Stencil Collection. I decided on some pink vintage prints and a polka dot from The Graphics Fairy.

I alternated squares of my printed Lemurian Garden paper with vintage pink and white patterns that I downloaded from The Graphics Fairy.

I cut the papers into squares, thinking I would do a simple checkerboard effect. My inner quilter said that the checkerboard was boring, so I got brave and cut each square into triangles, then arranged those pieces in a pinwheel design, reminiscent in color and design of a favorite childhood quilt.

The paper squares were cut into triangles for a pinwheel quilt design.

Once I decided on the pattern and colors, I began gluing them onto the tray with Liquitex Matte Medium.

When I measured the squares of printed paper, they fit perfectly on the tray. Somehow when I sliced the squares into triangles and created the pinwheel design, the shapes ended up smaller, and I was left with a white strip down the middle! I debated how to fix the problem.

Washi Roll to the rescue! 

Similar to sushi rolls, I had just made some paper "washi rolls" as a Stencil Club trade. Artist and StencilClub member Wendy Baysa has a really good youtube video on how to make Washi Rolls. I had made three rolls--I traded one 3" x 28" roll and saved two for myself. As luck would have it, or maybe because I'm a creature of habit, the colors went beautifully with the pinwheel pieces and they were just the right width. The hard part was deciding which roll to use on my tray. I loved the one with the green bunny, but the one with the black and sepia Julie Balzer stamps had more punch.

The Washi Rolls above were made with several layers of StencilGirl designs with both acrylic paint and archival ink, plus collage and stamps. I used paper from a vintage piano roll, reinforced it with with deli paper, cut it into 3" x 28" strips, then stamped, stenciled and collaged them.

I bravely cut the roll and glued it in place. I loved it! But....how would I waterproof the tray? After all, what good is a serving tray if you can't clean it? I didn't intend to eat directly off the tray, but I did want to be able to rinse it off or wipe it with a sponge or antibacterial wipe without damaging the tray.

The "washi roll" was just the right width to cover the white gap in the middle of the tray.

I tested some pieces of the stenciled paper with some of Seth Apter's Vintage Beeswax embossing powder. I put on a thin layer of matte medium, sprinkled the Vintage Beeswax liberally, zapped it with the heat gun, and magic happened.

The colors darkened a little, and the test paper now had a beautiful shine. I gathered my courage, held my breath, then embossed the whole tray section by section.

Here's a close-up of the tray. You can see the Lemurian Pansy in turquoise on the bottom left, and the Lemurian Tulip in pink on the bottom right:

With the addition of the matte medium and embossing powder, the whites had taken on an ecru color, the brightness was toned down and had an aged feel. The tray took on a vintage 1930s vibe and it reminded me of  an old fashioned picnic tray. 

With that idea in mind, I decided to make a matching picnic plate. This time, since I was working with a circular shape, I chose a circular quilt pattern. I downloaded a template from the internet, and cut little petal shapes out of my leftover paper, arranged them carefully, then glued them down to a paper plate I had covered with pink polka dot paper. Again, when the pattern was finished, I covered the plate with matte medium and Vintage Beeswax and heated it until the powder melted.

Since I made the plate from paper and glue, it is a prototype, and I will not use it for dining. But it would make beautiful design for a dinnerwear set, wouldn't it?

Inspired by the picnic mood and the Lemurian Garden theme, I took the tray to my nearest outdoor spot: Tudor City Park, a beautiful out of the way area of Midtown East that overlooks the United Nations. The quiet, peaceful park on a beautiful summer day was a perfect setting for my upcycled picnic tray and plate!