So my roommate got an invitation to a Masquerade themed New Years Eve party. She was lamenting needing to buy a mask. Well, I piped in and said I could make one. She was so happy with the idea, that if I made her one, I could go too. Woohoo, time to fire up the GForge.

First thing, is finding a design she’d like. I mentioned animal masks, and she’s like “I want to be a fox.”. OK. Those are pretty plentiful. Found this person on Etsy who sells plans for low poly masks, including a fox. She likes it. They have a set that includes a raven, which I like.

With plans in hand it’s time to make some masks. First up is the Raven.

If I’m going to screw this up (Learn as I go), best I do so with my mask. Looking good, with this test run.
Did I mention I wanted to make them in Leather? No?, well yeah. So one problem with these paper masks are the plans don’t include holes for sewing. Off to the computer to start modifying the plans to include holes.

Sewing test run with the beak.

Looking real good. Time to go visit the local Tandy store. Ha, it’s the holiday season, there are some good specials on leather and tools. Picked up a large piece of 4/5 oz shoulder leather. Bigger than I can fit into the GForge, but I have leather scissors now. (That one piece yielded 6 sheets of leather cut perfectly for the bed, and I only need 1 per mask.).

Time to laze some leather.

There is something very satisfying about watching the Glowforge cutting out little holes.

Cutting the leather

As someone else pointed out. DON’T use the blue painters tape for masking of leather. I had already done this before his post, so I knew how he felt. It looks nice, but the tape glue pulled some of the leather with it when I peeled it.

Eagled eyed readers may notice two very large mistakes in the above picture. Yeah, I had to go back and cut two replacement pieces.

Started dying pieces and sewing them together.

For the beak I used Yellow dye.

For the face and feathers I used Black and then put a layer of Blue. While I didn’t get the blue tinge I was hoping for, I did still get an iridescent effect that really looks nice.

Final piece sewn together, just need to add straps.

My fingers are so sore. Even with holes, the process of sewing leather is arduous. Also, due to the shapes in the mask, beak, eyes, etc. I couldn’t use the saddle clamp for most of the work. This made it a bit tricky, pulling thread with my mouth while holding the mask and other needle in my hands.

And now for the final product. Riveted the leather straps on and voila. I have a Low poly raven mask made from leather. Thank you !