Sanding and Surface Decoration on my mask

 Spend a bunch of this morning sanding and sanding... The wood filler did a GREAT job of being sandable, but the sandpaper hated it... I think I need to get something that can cope with curved surfaces e.g. a sanding cloth. The surface is still a bit uneven, and if I was a better person, I'd fill it and sand it again, but alas I am not that good of a person...

Having filled my lungs with dust (to compound the cheese wax already inhaled), I set about experimenting with surface decoration. I thought of using string, but I thought it would be hard to do the branching design, plus I thought it would be too think and too textured, so I tried extruding wood filler and also PVC through a small syringe. I convinced myself to try the wood filler on the mask itself, but it looked terrible - blobby and smeary and gappy... All the 'y's... So I ended up scraping it all off (which was so easy that I suspect it would have fallen off anyhow) and going back to string. 

I cut it into two matching sets of lengths of parcel string and heavily smeared each length in PVA. I then applied it to the mask, and it worked really well! Firstly it was very easy to position and adjust, and by pressing it down I was able to make it flatter, and by carefully abutting lengths and giving some tender loving care to the joints, I was able to make it look almost like one branching piece!

Pretty crappy photo, but you get the idea... Again if I was a better person I would probably re-do the design slightly - I like the idea of putting it in the hollows of the skull so it catches the darker washes, but the straight-down main stem looks a bit naff, it should really have curved and branched... Hey ho.

Next up I was going to paint it a base coat of black to make the silver leaf pop, but discovered I have no black paint, so I ordered some from the evil empire - they have made good money from me for this project! My silver leaf arrived today - gave it a quick go - looks lovely and works as expected! Annoyed about the enforced hiatus while I wait for paint, but probably good for me to have a break - getting very obsessive.