Making Masks | Seeking Yugen (Kumasaka)

After last week's Hannya mask make, I decided the next one to try would be a Kumasaka mask.

"Kumasaka – a famous thief and leader of a gang of robbers, has bright eyes that represent strong caution"

What stood out to me was the piercing look in his eyes and pinched lips, which I thought would look great in copper (perhaps with a green patina thrown in?).

With that, my first thought was to try and find a pre-made mask STL, but nothing came up in the search, so I got to work making my own.

I wanted to try a web tool I recently found called picto3D, since it's totally free and could get me a good starting point to use in Blender.

From there, it took a few hours of cleanup work and sculpting (by no means am I an expert in this) to get a model I was happy with in Cura.

After kiln time and a bit of sanding, Kumasaka was ready for the torch 🔥

This time around I was a bit more familiar with how hot the mask needed to be for the quench, so it only took two dips this time to get to a look I was happy with.

For the green patina, a bit of vinegar and salt solution was painted on around the areas I wanted to highlight (specifically the eyes and wrinkles of the forehead). I think the remaining oil prevented a more drastic patina so it’s only slightly noticeable in the final mask (will have to do some more experiments)

Here's the finished result,  what do you think? Let me know in the comment section,

With this one done, I'm up to two Noh masks (both of which I've done in copper) for the collection.  If you're interested in watching the process, I've linked the make below,

Cheers 🍻
-Highball