Día de Muertos mask restoration video

Dear friends!

Today´s video is something different from what I had been shooting before. Recently, I bought this Día de Muertos Mexican mask in a local second-hand shop. It is made rather cheaply and cost me just 2 EUR. The mask was rather dirty, so I washed it with a damp tissue. There are many little bits of damage in the paint layer, as well as a bigger paint loss on the nose area. So I decided to restore the vivid colors and add something even more to the mask…

I should definitely mention that my artistic alteration of the mask is not a proper museum restoration. This is simply to refresh the once beautiful mask so that I could hang it on al wall or maybe even wear to a masquerade. So please do not try to repeat the process on a really old or valuable piece of art 

Basic Process

1. First, I cleaned the mask with a damp cloth. I also cleaned the inside of the mask with ethanol and painted white. This process is not on the video, sorry.
2. Then, I took three Lindy’s Gang sprays and partially dyed the artificial fabric flowers around the mask. I used Summer Lovin’ Sun and Cowabunga Copper on the flowers, and Bells of Ireland Green of the leaves.
3. The next step is the paint layer renewal. I mixed the chosen Lindy´s Magicals with the soft gloss gel, which resulted in beautiful semi-transparent paints. No water needed for the paints. I had some near me only to clean the brushes. My chosen Magicals were of the same colors that were present on the mask. So I picked Rizzo´Rowdy Red for the red areas, Tears on My Pillow Tangerine for the orange, Golden Sleigh Bells to retouch the yellow parts, Edelweiss Moss Green for green and French Lilac Violet for purple areas. I colored all the originally painted parts over with my new self-made paint and let it dry. I also colored the edges of the fabric leaves with the same Edelweiss Moss Green paint to make them look more versatile.
4. Then I took some heavy gesso black and colored over the black parts. The heavily damaged nose area demanded 3 layers of gesso so that the paint layer would look even.
5. When the paint and the gesso were all dry, I touched up some painted areas with the soft gloss gel and sprinkled some nail glitter with large particles over those areas. I also did for the flowers and the leaves for a more complex and festive look.
6. Finally, I took a hot melt glue gun and some black handmade paper flowers, and attached them to the mask to enrich its floral decoration.

Lindy’s Products

• Starburst Sprays: Cowabunga Copper, Bells of Ireland Green
• Flat Fabio Sprays: Summer Lovin’ Sun
• Magicals: Rizzo´Rowdy Red & Tears on My Pillow Tangerine from set Go Greased Lightnin’ Flat Magicals set, Golden Sleigh Bells from Jingle Bells Shimmer Magicals, Edelweiss Moss Green & French Lilac Violet

Other Products:

• Black heavy gesso, soft gloss gel (Prima Marketing Inc), nail glitter, handmade flowers