Earlier this month I was delighted to be asked make two masks for an upcoming ballet of the Nutcracker, being performed in London for children and young audiences. The ballet company is Lets All Dance (www.lets-all-dance.co.uk) founded by Orit Sutton, specialised in dance classes and in 2013 produced their first professional show 'The Princess and the Frog' which toured England to more then 3000 children, parents and teachers.
I have been asked to make the Nutcracker and Mouse King masks, a challenge since this is a two person ballet and involves a lot of quick changes, so there are some very specific requirements to take into account - the main one being that the masks cannot touch the dancers faces and must affect their makeup and hair as little as possible. They also must be light and have as much visibility as possible whilst looking visually impressive.
After discussion with the founder of Lets All Dance, Orit Sutton, it was decided that Varaform would be the best material to use. At University, I saw varaform used but haven't used it before myself, so this was a new experience for me.
The first thing that I learnt, unfortunately the hard way, was that when you are using a large piece of varaform, the only way to soften the plastic infused cotton if you don't have a heat gun is to submerge it in 70 degree+ water, at which point if you cant sustain the temperature of the water you have to take it out and work fast to form it before it hardens again, or folds over on itself and fuses. Using gloves also doesn't work as the varaform can fuse to the gloves, so it was a time of very sore fingers for a bit!
The Mouse King!
The first stage of making this mask was to create a master form to mould it over. For this I used tin foil, reasoning that the plastic wouldn't stick to it and that the foil could be compressed to remove it from inside the mask. For the main bulk of the mask I used varaform light mesh
After submerging the varaform in hot water I quickly moulded it around the master and it set within a couple of minutes. Below is the mask after the foil was removed!
For the crown I decided to use varaform gauze, which is cotton gauze impregnated with plastic. This was much stiffer and less stable when moulded then the mesh. It also does not fuse as well to the mesh as the mesh does to itself. I cut out the basic crown shape, submerged it as I did with the mesh and fastened it to the 'forehead' of the mouse face.
When I was a student, an art supplier would come to the campus to sell discounted art supplies, and on one of those occasions, with a few pounds to spare, I bought some gold metal leaf, thinking at some point I would need some and it would be good to get some in preparation. That was over two years ago, and finally this was my first chance to use it! Despite saying that it requires a special adhesive, I have found that strong PVA actually works very well. This is the stage the mask is currently at, and tomorrow once the glue has a chance to set properly, I am going to layer a coat of glue over the crown to make sure that the leaf holds.
To make the mask secure on the head and to keep the mask away from the face, the best way that I have come up with is to use a similar technique to the one used by the 'Breathe' team when making the hats and headdresses for the performers - namely using a dismantled bicycle helmet cut apart to form a 'crown' going in a band around the head. This will hopefully reduce the impact on the hair, make it a secure fit and hold the mask securely away from the face.
I hope to use the same technique on the interior of the Nutcracker mask.
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