Mask progress - beyond Kiss, but where now?

Avid readers will recall you last left me bemoaning the fact that my mask looked like it was more 'glam rock' than 'gothic horror', let alone respectable fine art... I therefore decided to embrace the process and paint the whole thing gloss black, but then wipe away from the 'highlights' of the 'skull' to let the silver shine through:

Much better again! I think decided to buy some gold and silver paint, and picked out the surface decoration in gold, and added a silver tear:

I also got around to finally adding elastic so I didn't have to hold it the whole time! I added black fabric over the eye holes (fittingly from a project Carolyn was working on a few weeks before she died). I might need to tone down the 'tear' a bit as it's quite distracting. 

Meanwhile I want to make a crown to give better balance and to transform the mask into 'regret', the first of a series of different emotions related to loss. I think the crown should be made from barbed wire, so I've been experimenting with making fake barbed wire from string soaked in PVA:

So far, so good! I've actually started on the crown using garden wire to stiffen everything. I think I might add some dried ivy painted gold as it looks a bit 'bare' at the moment...