Starting the Leather.

The gentle art of manual persuasion.

Carving of the wood matrix for ‘Capitano’Mask complete.

Waiting for time to do the next stage of the process, casting with leather.

Some experiments with small scale carving and casting in veg-tanned leather.                 Bas-relief carving and Intaglio.         Next I shall try out various finishes. Learning by doing.

     A detail of this work that I made in 2006

The Full LeatherHead           

My Lion Mask is now on it’s way to a new home.                                                                                        To Accra in Ghana,  to be with Jacob Tetteh-Ashong who wears it so well.

The story is told in the documentary film, ‘Paa Joe and the Lion’                                                      Directed by Benjamin Wigley, Produced by Anna Griffin both of ‘www.artdocs.org’.

Paa Joe and the Lion at Clumber Park 2013

Jacob at the Gala Screening of the film on Sunday  28th August 2016                                            at Broadway Cinema, Nottingham.

Gala Screening of the ArtDocs documentary film ‘Paa Joe and the Lion’ took place at Broadway Cinema on Sunday 28th August. Assisted by a Parade of Drummers, Pall-bearers, Dancers and The Scraggies. All having been a part if the Artist in Residence programme at Clumber Park back in 2013.

If you are near Broadway, go and see the exhibition of photographs, masks, archive materials and The Lion itself in the Broadway Gallery in Heathcoat Street.

Gala Parade, images by Roger Knott-Fayle

The Scraggies at Clumber Park, image by Jen Sumner

Masks in Action, Clumber Park, image by Richard Frost

Two versions of the ‘Frost-Cooper’ 3D measuring gauge.

The device we have created to assist me with maintaining symmetry and accuracy while translating a mask design into Carved Wood.. No doubt as I become more experienced, I will have less and less need of these tools.

Already this is helping me overcome my lack of binocular vision. The legacy of being born with an astigmatism (cross eyed).

New piece of kit, a sculptor’s tripod.

Thank you Richard, for making this great piece of equipment                                                     which will make the wood carving much easier.

Taller than a table, no need for clamps and I can walk all the way around it.

And I will be able to work either outside or indoors depending on the weather.                   Hurrah! Moving with the development of my  carving skills.

Leather Zanni Mask close to completion, needing the eyes and nostrils to be cut and the leather  to be coloured. I have been thinking that the very dark Italian masks don’t show well in the soft English light and thus lose the sculpture.I am  looking for a paler leather colour to enhance the form and character. Will experiment with tan.

Picture is of the  the wooden carving , the paper cast and the leather.

Some of the tools for this trade. Some old and some new.

Today I started working with leather on this Zanni.

First day, more tomorrow. Not there yet but on the way.