Friday, July 8, 2011

Kimmy Cantrell Inspired Salt Dough Masks




This mask was painted black first, and then gone over in metallics and brights


Key accented head




I have done cardboard masks inspired by the work of sculptor, Kimmy Cantrell. I had seen some wonderful clay masks at Mrspicasso's Art Room. I thought I'd give it a try with salt dough with my Messy Art Fun camp. After creating a face base we formed bold facial features using small pieces of dough. We used bits of hardware like Cantrell to accent our faces. We baked them until hard and painted them with acrylics. A final coat of Mod Podge gave them a nice glossy finish. These were a lot of fun to create.

7 comments:

  1. I like your interpretation of the artist's work.
    My favorite is the key accented head.

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  2. I love this lesson-I always get such cute results and the kids have so much fun with it. Never tried it with salt dough though. Great to know you got good results with it.

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  3. These are really cool. I haven't heard of this artist - is he big in the U.S?

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  4. Amazing art work-as usual! A great and economical clay. Thanks for a new mask idea.

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  5. Thanks all! Anne, I have only known about Cantrell for a few years. I believe he was a distribution manager for Target and reconnected with his love of clay after moving to rural Georgia. His work took off and he became a full-time artist.I love stories like that!

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  6. This my sounds like a dumb question, but I have never used salt dough. Do you just make it yourself and let it air dry? Do you have a favorite recipe? I would love to try a lesson like this :)

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  7. It's not a dumb question Kristyn. I don't have a kiln, so I like to come up with some alternatives. Air dry clay and Sculpey are good options. But I've had luck with my salt dough recipe for certain projects. (4 cups flour, 1 cup salt and 1-2 cups water- bake at 300-325* until hard). I teach smaller groups so this works well for me.

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I appreciate your comments and feedback!