Masks
The Face of Le Papillon
Le Papillon - Divine Father of Flowers, Mother of Stars, the Transcendental Butterfly and the Creator himself - sheds its form with the creation of every cosmos, not unlike how a snake sheds its skin. Remnants of its former vessels can be found scattered across the cosmos like old ruins. Hands become mountains, organs the seabed, tonsil stones into moons and rogue planets. Sometimes these remnants take the form of abstract prosopopeians, such as the Fallen One or the Collective Unconscious. Many existential-anthropologists and archaeologists have found fossilized remnants of the less refined remnants of this great and powerful being, one of which now on exhibit at the Dadallas Unnatural History Museum. Such a subject is a fossilized face, a face not unlike that of a human's, but with a gaping, almost insectoid maw and a tongue, coated in a fossilized petroleum oil/amber-like substance. The face itself appears to be frozen in a permanent state of fear-induced madness. What would be so horrible that it could drive something like Le Papillon mad? Should we fear of it or Le Papillon?
Media: White Stonewall clay, glaze, under-glaze, yarn, buttons, scissors |
The Face of a Scorned Woman
A woman from Miyake Island married a samurai, vowing herself to him forever. Overtime, she began to see the man for the dishonorable bastard that he truly was and began to forsake her vows, taking on one of their maids as her secret lover.
Word reached her husband, who took his sworn and mutilated her face beyond recognition as ironic punishment before she bled to death, her tears mixing with the blood in a tragic end. The woman, however, did not stay gone from the mortal plane. Angry and hurt, her spirit resurfaced as a Kuchisake-Onna under contract with a selfish evil. After killing her former husband in vengeance, her restless spirit sought out her former lover. Using her husband's sword, she killed her lover and removed her face, crystalizing it with the waters of the bowl before wearing the face herself, hiding the scars of her true self. Media: White Stonewall clay, glaze, thread |
The Face of Den Bastard
A greedy son of a bitch, the Bastard of Baskerville conned and cheated his way to luxury, having ignored all suffering he brings. His motto - "Reach for the stars until you find them" - has brought him solace in his neverending gluttony and ambition, until he conned and cheated the daughter of an infamous sorcerer, knocking her up with no desire to pay child support. The bastard's motto was refitted into a curse, the bastard was cursed with a "sense of proportion", seeing the stars and despairing at the vast distance between him and them. Begging for mercy, the bastard went to the sorcerer for help in undoing his suffering. After pleading from his daughter, the sorcerer agreed and removed the curse (and his more selfish qualities) and imprisoned them in an exaggerated portrait of his face. Now any who wear the mask are struck with a crippling, existential ennui, the mask smiling as it does its jobs perfectly.
Media: White Stonewall clay, glaze, under-glaze, yarn |
The Face of the Imposter
A satanist with a propensity with gaining personal favor with the Fallen One himself. His parents told him of how the Fallen One held flair for the dramatic and took pleasure in suffering, evil and all things wrong with the world and took it to heart.
Using his family's arcane magics, he fashioned himself a disguise, an overt parody of what everybody believes the devil was as he went off into the world, a blight, a bane and a selfish evil on the world. As his sins reached beyond the physical-plane, the Fallen One found the various "tributes" distasteful and needless, and so felt fit to punish him. He manifested to the satanist, and because his appearance did not fit the Imposter's standards, he merely believed him to be a lesser demon to be commanded. As punishment for his pride and hedonism, the Fallen One banished him from the immaterial plane - especially his own domain - and forced him to wander the realm of the living, unable to escape the consequences of his actions. It would be nice if he was smart enough to realize just how counter-productive his actions were though, still wreaking havoc to this day. Media: White Stonewall clay, glaze, under-glaze, yarn |
The Face of Il Dottore
In a dark and diseased land, Il Dottore hunted pestilence like game. With nothing but sticks and bottles of mercury, Dottore wandered the savage wastelands, slaying disease wherever it roamed. Now long dead, those who wear his mask are empowered with his skill, his strength and his delusions.
Media: White Stonewall clay, glaze, yarn |
The Face of Evil
The Face of Strange One
Not "Face of the Stranger". "Face of the Strange One". This face is no stranger to anybody, as anybody who sees the wearer wearing the mask is cursed to know every little detail of the wearer's thought and life, be they accomplishes, sins or really embarrassing kinks.
Media: White Stonewall clay, glaze, yarn |
The Face of the Dryad
Carved from the wood of a slain Dryad, this mask became possessed by the Dryad's angry spirit, those who come into possession of the mask shall meet a violent death at the hands of nature. Trees falling on them, harmless blue birds pecking their eyes out, being struck by lightening, etc.
Media: White Stonewall clay, glaze, yarn, dried baby's-breath |
The Face of Ice Cream
An old wizard was working one day and his mentally-handicapped son wanted to give him a father's day gift. While he loves his son, having a sculpture of his face molded out of ice cream was not exactly the most practical of gifts, so he magically preserved the ice cream portrait.
Media: White Stonewall clay, glaze, yarn |
The Face of Leather
The Face of Leather was created by a nameless wizard to shut his wife up. She felt like she was not satisfying her sexually. So as a means of shutting her up, he tricked her into putting on a leather mask, believing that they were trying something "kinky." As soon as she put it on, the mask turned to stone. That shut her up.
Media: White Stonewall clay, glaze, yarn |
The Face of the Drunkard
Forged by a juvenile wizard as a practical joke, as long as one wears this mask, 0.01% of the wearer's blood is transmuted into pure alcohol. Every ten minutes, this content will rise steadily, essentially turning the wearer more and more drunk as time goes by.
Media: White Stonewall clay, glaze, bottle caps |
The Face of the High
When a juvenile wizard forged the Mask of the Drunkard, his teacher saw potential in the craftsmanship of the mask and the potential in it and began to experiment on her own, creating the Mask of the High. Anybody who wears the Mask of the High is granted a rush of euphoria. Unfortunately, the longer the mask is worn, the more intense the euphoria becomes. The user could cum themselves until they cum blood, they could smile till they rend the tendons in their face, their brains melting from the overload of hormones. It is especially sad when the mask can become frightfully addicting.
Media: White Stonewall clay, glaze, bottle caps |