Commissioned by the amazing Manojalpa .. she gave me artistic freedom to design for her a phoenix mask! My inspiration came from barbets (mostly bearded barbets) and hornbills. A little off the beaten path for a phoenix but I had a lot of fun!

The resin blank is from Crystumes and is one of her beautiful crow/raven blanks. I then sculpted and sanded and sculpted on it for a jillion years to form the beak shape and ridges, along with nostrils and scales around the eyes. Then I carefully furred it and individually set several hundred feathers into the crest.

Here's a doofy little video: http://youtu.be/hE6D3wuEvOc

Anyhow, I finished this in time for AC! YAY so this costume will be running around there I hope!

I wanted to mention: Last time I got a lot of inquiries when I posted a mask! These take me ages to complete, and I am really picky about only using high quality materials. Because of the HUGE time investment (seriously, nearly a month of steady daily work for this one!) please be advised that the price point for similar realistic and very detailed masks tends to edge into the 4-digit range. Also, I cannot cast resin so the blank must be outsourced. Keep this in mind if you send inquiries. :)