Unmasking

[pallas_athena]

Give me a case to put my visage in,
A visor for a visor! What care I
What curious eye doth quote deformities?
Here are the beetle brows shall blush for me.

--Romeo and Juliet, I.iv

I'm packing the masks away, carefully enshrouding each in bubble wrap. They'll sleep in a box until they can glorify the walls of the new place (and also, occasionally, lend me a better face.)

There's the first one I bought at the Maryland Renaissance Faire as a teenager, which I've worn with joy ever since. (That company is now headed by wildwose; I'm happy to have a few of his more recent creations.) There's the one I impulse-bought at a stall in Whitby that I then discovered bled red dye all over my face. There's the one I got in Venice with mothninja; the one I got in Leipzig with orkamedies and rosenkavalier; the ones badmagic and speedlime helped me decide on at DragonCon; the one I made at fatbuttsheep's wedding mask-making party. And the gifts: the one wyte_phantomgave me (with a stick), the one my Dad sent me (with feathers), and the one woodlandwildman presented me with on one of our explorations of Chinatown.

What I guess I'm saying here is that these masks wear the faces of my friends, and gathering them all together now makes me feel fortunate to have the best friends in the Universe. That's you.

Comments

[simonsatori.livejournal.com]

Masks wearing the faces of your friends... I love the way you wrote that.

[artnouveauho.livejournal.com]

Thank you, sir! From a writer of your talents, the compliment means a lot.

[wildwose.livejournal.com]

So thanks for the plug and what I wanted to see was picture of them all hung up together! Sounds like a great collection. I actually have a pretty good one of other Mask makers myself, that is lingering in a tub. I think I shall unpack it!

[artnouveauho.livejournal.com]

Excellent! I'll try and take photos of my collection once they're out of the boxes. Would love to see yours!

[fracture242.livejournal.com]

Hooray for masks! You have a beautiful collection (you know I covet your golden frilly one ;) I look forward to seeing them all up in the new flat!

[artnouveauho.livejournal.com]

Masks are the most fun things possibly ever.

Sorry to have missed your birthday drinks! It would be cool to see you and S soon.

[fracture242.livejournal.com]

Yes indeed, we must make a plan. Please don't worry about the drinks though - lots of people are ill at the moment!