Where abouts?
I grew up in Benoni.
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Im in Pretoria currently 
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No, thank you. Your kindness to reply is very much appreciated. And I did mean what I said about your work, it is stunning and should be showcased. Since I havenāt used any graphic programs in years (self taught the basics of CorelDraw to help other students actually taking a class learning it, lol). I know it will take time to learn and create but I just wanted to start in the right place.
I saw someone use a hand crank press that they created to apply the masking layer. It looked amazing. Do you suggest any special kind of masking layer? I didnāt know one was required before purchasing. The videos seemed to always cut out that part or show only a few seconds. I think I will be trying to source some quality work and cutting to size myself as well. I am in Wisconsin, USA.
Keep up the amazing work and beautiful heart.
Karen
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One of my childhood friends lives in Bapsfontein. The others are in Kempton park and Edenvale.
I had an opportunity to go back for work in the mid 2000ās, but they wanted me to also go to Duabi, Syria and Turkey all in the same week. 
It would have been in and out, no chance to visit anyone.
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Wow, I hope you post here a lot; welcome to the forum! (yeah, Iām late to the partyā¦) This is beautiful work and really inspires me to try my own mandala. Thanks for the written details, too.
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We had a friend years ago from Pretoria. She was at school here in the States. Her dad owned a door manufacturing company and flew all over the world. Wish we hadnāt lost touch.
Have you tried finding her through social media? It isnāt foolproof (not everyone uses social media, of course) but Iāve reconnected with a few people this way and itās been awesome. (Itās helped me get to know some of my family members that I didnāt know about, also.)
No I havenāt. Hadnāt thought about that! Duh! I know she got married, and I might even have an old letter from her still (yeah, we used to actually write in those days!) with her married name. Iāll have to check through my old files and give it a shot.
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I had an old friend in college from Micronesia (I did a work-study for the Dean of International Students and thatās how I met her) and so wish I could reconnect with her. But I have no idea what her last name wasā¦ hahaha Her first name is Julie. So um yeahā¦ that isnāt going to happen. 
I was just thinking about this a few days ago. If only I could remember her last name. I do have an old directory from college though, so I need to see if I have her info there!
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If youāre referring to the paper masking material that comes on Proofgrade material, itās not required, but it will keep smoke off your surface. You donāt need any machine to put it on, the edge of a piece of wood or a plastic blade lays it down beautifully.
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Masking is not ārequiredā but useful in some things and not so much in others. All of the Proofgrade materials come already masked, not everything you can buy does. That was the point she was making.
Cutting wood especially spews out smoke and stains, and the back gets āflashbackā that stains the back side of the wood also. This can be cleaned up, but it is easier to remove it with the masking. If you are engraving a large area then the part already engraved gets the gunk on it so no masking is possible.
If you search here for āmaskingā there are many discussions and suggestions.
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Ah, both ādeirdrebethā and ārbtdanforthā beat me to an answer!
Nothing I can add from my side that they havent already explained perfectly, thank you.
All I can say is using masking on something as intricate as the mandala for example is a huge time saver. Sooooo much easier peeling masking off than trying to get rid of smoke stains.
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Just throwing a hat in the ring here for the benefit of others wanting to try layered work like this.
Most of my āmandalaā style layered work has been with heavy, colored cardstock. Not as heavy as chipboard but thicker than construction paper. I do a few āAfrican themedā things, because thatās where I grew up. The main wall in my living room has all sorts of stuff related to that.
It can be cut with no soot residue, so no masking is necessary (and it would tear the material apart anyway.)
Wood looks great, but if you want to experiment with the technique, cardstock is a cheap way to dip your feet into the water. I think most of mine came from either Hobby Lobby or Michaels. HL often has a section of clearance products and I have a whole stash of stuff Iāve picked up from there.
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