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Submitted: May 16, 2010
Image Size: 76.6 KB
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Lady of the Catacombsby ~MidnightZodiac

Artisan Crafts / Costumery / Masks

This ghostly woman in her afterlife finery is a collage of several detailed segments. Her skull is wet molded leather, hammered, stretched and gently embossed into shape. Batwing like folds emerge and sweep upwards from her zygomatic arches. Horn like flounces adorn her frontal eminence, a pair of outer frills emerging from her temporal ridges and two inner ones aside her sagittal suture. She is dyed black and softly dry brushed to give her a countenance of weatherworn dusty stone.

Mournfully curving leaves with pointed tips grow from behind her cheekbones. Arranged in a shape which brought to my mind the wings of a strange rorshach blotty moth They are tooled with veins, dyed black and dusted with a hint of silver. With a baroque arthropodic influence, the lower leaves are the most elaborate terminating in the shape of a spiral stinger.

Her gorget of leather webs was patiently pierced from reinforced garment leather. The silhouette was a drawing done during a period of high fascination with art nouveau wrought iron. The collar can be removed and worn...it has gussets for shaping with an adjustable length of black chain and clasp. In the center is a single black peacock feather, it is a deep purplish black with dark bronzey rings. Remininiscent of the color of black tulips or the poisonous berries of the deadly nightshade.

Her leather lace tiara has a name all its own "Gates of the Iron Forest"...a bit much?...so what, I like it. This single piece has inspired me to design and construct a Victorian Byzantine revival dollhouse complete with gardens, forest and denizens of the diabolical sort. Now all I need is one thousand hours uninterrupted...

...The tiara is veggie leather meticulously hand pierced over many days and nights. The silhouette itself has myriad visual sources of inspiration...spider webs, slithering branches, scorpions tails, antlers, beaks, scarabs pincers, howling moons and the thorny eyes of perilous night. In the center of her forehead, the third eye, is a faceted labradorite marquis with strong blue labradorescence. I found a snippet of lore on this stone..."a myth surrounding Labradorite says that those who are attracted to this stone have ancestral roots in Atlantis"

This piece was featured in the 2007 Annual Halloween Art Exhibit.

Daily Deviation

Given 2011-10-30

Lady of the Catacombs by ~MidnightZodiac The shading and detail on this mask are wonderfully subtle.. This would truly be a frightening lady to meet anywhere, much less in a catacomb. ( Featured by `FrockTarts )

love 4 4

~~joy 0 0~~

wow 2 2

~~mad 0 0~~

~~sad 0 0~~

~~fear 0 0~~

~~neutral 0 0~~

~OfficialRebel Oct 11, 2012

like something from a dream or memory....

~PinkyTexan Oct 8, 2012 Hobbyist Artisan Crafter

Fascinating and beautiful!

*MeFlyingFree Apr 29, 2012 Professional Artisan Crafter

Your art has been featured here.[link] I hope you don't mind!

*GriffinLeather Nov 23, 2011

I like it.

`FrockTarts Nov 5, 2011 Hobbyist Artisan Crafter

This piece has been featured here [link]

~fakenails Oct 30, 2011 Hobbyist General Artist

pieces like these take time and patience...and skill...it took me a week to make a paper mache skull that had to be done in two parts off of a cement anatomically correct skull...though my skull turned out bigger because the paper was molded over the cement skull...