Mask Makers Web

Welcome to our coverage of the 10 day (90 hour) workshop in the design and construction of leather performance mask. This workshop is being run by Paolo Consiglio, a master leather mask maker and teacher from Florence, Italy. It is being held at The Crago Mill Regional Arts Centre, Piper Street, Bathurst, NSW, Australia. It has been financed by a Visiting Artists' Grant from Charles Sturt University and is open to the local community and students from CSU. It is being covered on the Net by staff and students of the Communication School at CSU's Bathurst Campus. You will be observing the processes of casting the the makers' faces to obtain a positive face mould on which the masks will be designed in clay. A positive plaster mould of the intended mask will be carved onto a wooden block. Over this block leather will be stretched, beaten and smoothed to create a performance mask. As part of this workshop there will be readings from Dante's "Divine Comedy" and various other Italian cultural delights. Please enjoy the processes involved in the fine art of leather mask making. Masks have been used throughout the history of theatre. They were a significant part of the the Western World's first professional theatre, the Commedia dell' Arte, which developed in Italy in the 16th Century.

Category: Mask making / Methods

Added on: Apr 17, 2001 | Hits: 11967