"Embedded" Masks by Richard Henzel

Making "Embedded" Masks, March 2006

(for more about "Embedded" go HERE)

This page is kinda in reverse choronology. To watch the process in forward chronology, start from the bottom and scroll up...

First (last, really) a video clip of the scene as staged, with the final Masks..

Final design, with improvised costumes at fitting Sunday, March 25.

l to r: "Rum rum" (Rumsfeld) , "Wolfie" (Wolfowitz), "Dick" (Cheney), "Gondola" (Condoleeza Rice) , "Pearlywhite" (Richard Perle),
and "Kove" (Karl Rove).

Final gluing of straps and padding.

Late Sunday aftenoon, I begin pulling the heroes from the molds.

Sunday morning, more painting, and I begin pouring the heroes.

Saturday afternoon, a second workshop is held at the theatre, this time limited to the six actors who will play the Office of Special Plans, working only with those masks. Actually, these are the backup masks, which I will hold in reserve in case anything happens to the heroes while I'm at Madison Rep (where I'll be till May 21). Within twenty minutes of putting on the masks, the actors are already doing one of the OSP scenes, and it's a riot.

Friday Morning, 1AM. First painting of backup set. The next set will be the "heroes" as the first casting always has a few problems. I've already poured them and will have the heroes ready by next Wednesday. Meanwhile we have this set to rehears with and photograph. What you do you all think about making an appearance at the rally Saturday afternoon after the workshop? Here are the latest photos:

Gondola gets her left nostril reamed....

the first set painted.. Kove will getí stringy blond hairs, Gondi will get earrings, and Rum, Dick, and kove will get glasses...

I might want some help from Elizabeth on the straps; for Saturday I will just attach some elastic; we can change to the final system of attachment once we decide on the best method.

Thursday morning, March 16, 1:16AM. Putting the newly poured masks to bed for the night. Got our weekly peace vigil at 7:30 tomorrow morning. Hey, what about the OSP gang showing up at the big demo Saturday?

I finally had the first full set at about 2:30A Weds. morning. I' left them to cure overnight.

They were still pretty soft today, I took them outside and used the fresh air and sunlight to help speed the curing process...

...turning them frequently to prevent warping...

I did quite a bit of trimming and carving out in the back yard this afternoon, and started the painting with Rum and Woof...

What you see here is some of the underpainting (darker colors of glaze will go over the light coat to emphasize the contours and textures). I'm hoping the blue of Gondola's hair will show through the black glaze as iridescence... Ok, it's late. I'm not making any sense and I'm going to bed...

Sculpting one of the clay models four days ago. I've been at this pretty much every night, all night, for the last week or so.

The next step was making the plaster casts of the clay models.

&nbsÜp;

Finally finished the last of the molds late Sunday night. Poured two masks, and painted them; Pearly White (richard perle) and Gondola (you know who...) Here they are:

"PearlyWhite" painted Mask (2 views)

"Gondola" painted Mask (2 views)

Got the rest of my latex delivered Tuesday night--the ides of march. That night I poured six more masks (the four that I hadn't done before and a second Gondola and Pearly White...