Hello and Welcome to my Blog ~ I love art of all kinds. Two of my favorites are polymer clay and paper art. I have shops on Etsy that feature both of my passions. I also love writing my blog and finding artists that have a passion for their craft and feature them. I hope your day is filled with sunshine, laughter and loads of creativity.


Saturday, March 26, 2011

Masked Faces by Sandy Prenzi

For those of you that are not familiar with my blog, my name is Sandy Prenzi. I am a proud mom of three and a fun-loving Grandmom of three. I grew up in the once small town of Danbury Connecticut and moved several times around the country finally settling in Plano Texas in 1995.

I began creating with polymer clay in May of 2010 and made my first masked face shortly thereafter. My inspiration for them was my trip to Italy. It seemed like every other shop in Venice held these wonderful masks. But, mine are a bit different as they mostly feature the face and headdress rather than the mask itself.



The figure on the left is one of my favorites. I love the mystery that is held behind the mask.

I used Sculpey terra cotta for the face and black glass beads for her eyes. I also used Sculpey for her shroud. I named this one 'Mystery in Purple' which seemed very appropriate for this particular creation.

I use this creation not only for my Avatar but also on my business card.


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Meet King Montu, he was the Solar God of Ancient Egypt. His mask was created with Sculpey polymer clay. I added black glass beads for eyes and embellished his with a circular design representing the solar system. headdress


He is approximately 7" tall by 6" wide and comes mounted on a 13" by
7.75" black frame.


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This Indian was one of my first creations. I love how his mask and feathers came out I used a blend of purples to make the feathers and mica powder on the stamped designed mask to give it the effect that I wanted. Copper mica powder was the key embellishment for the face and I found I had these fabulous colored glass beads to use for the eyes.

As it turned out, I was very pleased with his appearance. He measures approximately 5" in length and 4" wide.


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Here is my 'Biker Babe' I loved creating this one. I wanted her headdress and mask to look like leather and I think I succeeded.

Can't you just picture this?

She rode her Harley to the Masquerade Ball. Everyone watched as she sauntered into the ballroom sparkling with bronze highlights from the cascading light of the chandelier.

She was created with polymer clay and is approximately 6" wide
by 7" tall and is mounted on a 7" by 13" black frame.


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This fella can't wait to be the life of the party. His marbled face hardly cracks a smile, but he makes everyone else laugh. He was created with Sculpey polymer clay, glass beads and a dab of humor. He is approximately 6" tall by 4" wide and comes in a black shadow box.

This piece was such a happenstance. I had some clay that was left over from several projects and they were all fairly light colors so I began melding them together and found that it looked a lot like Marble. UMMM, I thought, wouldn't this make an interesting face. I decided to use red for the hair and mask so the marble look would pop out even more. The glass beads that I use on most of my faces come from Michaels. They are flat in shape and measure 1/2 inch round. Perfect for the look I want.


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Here is another one of my favorites. My thought for her headdress was to use the orange and rust colors to make it appear very silky. As I created her I thought about her riding through the white desert sands on her black steed. Her silk robe flowing behind her as she gallops toward her destination.

Isn't it funny the things you think about as you create. I just can't picture her anywhere else.

She is approximately 5" wide by 8" tall and has been mounted on a 8.75" by 10.75" black frame.

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I think I was watching a marathon of Harry Potter movies when I came up with this one.

The name of this creations is 'Lizard Wizard'. Notice the Lizard emblem on this Wizard's headdress. In Roman mythology the lizard was thought to sleep throughout the winter and thus came to symbolize death and resurrection.

This creation is approximately 9" tall by 4.5" wide and comes mounted on a 13" by 7.75" black frame.

She was also created out of Sculpey and embellished with a stamped design. I was extremely happy with how it turned out. I added the little crystal star on her check because I thought she should have a beauty mark.


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This was another of my first sculptures. I named her Robyn Hood. She lives in the enchanted forest and has a little raven haired fairy named Trink that is her best friend.

She was created out of Sculpey polymer clay and embellished with a rubber stamped design. Trink plucked the feathers for Robyn's cap from a hawk that was sleeping high in a treetop at the edge of the forest and boy, was that hawk ever mad. It chased poor little Trink for miles before he gave up and let her go on her merry way.


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I decided to travel to the Far East in my thoughts and create this piece. I remember in 'The King and I', that the maidens wore headdresses similar to this one.

She was created with Sculpey polymer clay and embellished with rubber stamps and mica powders.

This creation is approximately 5" tall by 5.5" wide and comes mounted on a 8" tall by 7.5" wide black


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The Ocean was on my mind the day I created this one. I think if I had made the body to go with her, she would have been a mermaid.

She was created with Sculpey polymer clay. I love how the headdress glistens, just like the waves do when the sun is hitting them. I spread white glitter glue on the headdress to make this effect.

She is approximately 5" wide by 7" in length and has been mounted on a 9" wide by 11" black on black frame.

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These are just a few of my masked faces. You can see more at: Sandy's Creations by mstp on Etsy

3 comments:

Trina Prenzi said...

Your Masked Faces are wonderful Mom!! Great work, and I love the stories you wrote about each one, to introduce them to us. :) I just don't know which is my favorite, love them all.

~Trina

Sandy's Creations in Clay said...

Thank you Trina for the wonderful compliment on my Masked Faces. They were all so much fun to create.

Melobeau said...

What cool masked faces and enjoyable stories behind each one. KUDOS!