My Mask

I started to make my mask this week after deciding on a topic/theme. It took a while to come up with an idea, but I became inspired by the idea of making a flower into a mask when I made "flowers" my theme for an assignment in one of my other classes. For my mask, I decided that the first flower I would make would be a rose because I have a personal love for that flower because of my boyfriend. Every year for Valentine's Day he gives me a rose in some form. The first year, he gave me a dozen red roses, the next year he gave me half a dozen roses made out of chocolate, last year he gave me a glass rose. He has also given me a rose dipped in wax from our county fair, a locket with a rose engraving on it, and countless bouquets of roses through our three years together. I had never had a favorite flower, but now my favorite flower is the rose because he has made it so special for me.

I had to decide what color to make the first mask which was difficult. I thought a black rose could be interesting since Halloween is coming up. I also thought that blue would be nice because it is my best friend's favorite flower, but neither black nor blue roses naturally occur in nature. That did not bother me, but I felt that, after doing some research about the colors' meanings, it did not fit with my source of inspiration. Black meaning "death, farewell," and blue meaning "the unattainable, the impossible." I liked the meanings for red and white roses, they are listed below, so I just had to decide which one I would do. At this point, it did not really matter which color I chose, so I went to Blick to buy materials and I made my decision based on my aesthetic reaction to the choices before me. I ended up choosing red because I liked the paper and the combination of it with the green stem. I also thought that if I were to make an entire costume to go with it, the white would look too bridal. If I decide I have the time to make another mask and I want to make a rose, instead of any other thing, then maybe I will do a white rose mask.

Red: Love, Beauty, Courage and Respect, Romantic Love, Congratulations, "I Love You", "Job Well Done", Sincere Love, Respect, Courage & Passion

Red (Dark):Unconscious beauty

Red (Single): "I Love You"

White: Purity, Innocence, Silence, Secrecy, Reverence, Humility, Youthfulness, "I am worthy of you", Heavenly

White (Bridal): Happy love

Red and White: Given together, these signify unity

I got the meanings of the roses off of this website:
http://www.rkdn.org/roses/colors.asp