Latex mask before painting.

This project was for the Governor's Ball, held during opening weekend of the Kentucky Derby. The theme was to relate to the carousel, including four different horse characters and their accompanying riders. My part in this project was to help create the horse masks to be worn by the professional dancers.

We began by creating a life-size sculpture of a horse head out of clay. Once the bust was finished, we made a plaster cast of our piece. We then poured liquid latex into the mold and let the mixture sit for three hours so the outer layer would take its form. Once this was completed, we carefully removed the mask and ended up with what is pictured to the left. The next task was to airbrush the faces, adding shading and texture, the eyes, and their expressions. Each was given a specific color of pink, green, blue, or purple.

'Green' mask after being airbrushed.

Once the coloring was finished, the decorations could begin. With a trip to the costume shop we found feathers, boas, sequins, beads, jewels, and colorful materials to add the costume.

To the right is our blue horse in full decor.

Then it was on to the DANCERS IN COSTUME...