And she stated she’s produced one particular design for 10+ years, and likely many more years than that to get it to that point… so we know there’s also lots of practice behind it (and that’s one thing lots of people lack, they want the finished product without all the effort)
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One of these years, I’m going to write a tutorial or make a video. Ideally, I’d really love to do classes, as I feel like that would be the most rewarding! I’d love to see the “aha” moment when concepts click for people and most especially, I’d love to see students’ finished works.
In the meantime, there are many tutorials online. I’ll try to dig up a few of the good ones for you guys 
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Yep! I started making masks in 1990 or 91, well before I got online. At the time, mask making (and more specifically, leather mask making) was a relatively obscure craft, so my learning curve was steep and involved a lot of trial and error. Like, incredible amounts of error 
Now there are many mask artisans online, and lots of tutorials to learn from. I admit that I’ve been jealous of some of these newer mummers at times, because those tutorials and communities literally shave years off your learning curve (not to mention the $$ saved in learning the best/right materials from the get go). Still, it’s like any other craft - it takes time to hone your skills and style. You can know the principles in your mind, but you have to keep working at it until the knowledge is in your hands as well.
And lest any of that sound arrogant or braggy, rest assured that I’m still learning and still making lots of mistakes. Hopefully, I even learn from some of them. It’s an ongoing process.
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If anyone gets a free pass to be braggy, you do!
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Thank you, that’s sweet. I’ll brag all day long about my daughter if you let me … less so about my creative work. Like most artisans, I still see all of the mistakes 
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Drea, your work has given me an enormous shot of adrenaline. It has encouraged me enormously, to push my rather vague ideas for contemporary fans to a much more ambitious level.
Thank you.
John
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I bet you could start a meetup or schedule one at any makerspace for your class with great success.
I would attend that via the interwebz video tutorials for sure. I bet you could do a Skillshare class and make a huge impact.
We could all submit our embarrassing first attempts. That would be so fun!
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@Drea, I am more interested in the set of skills this takes, rather than specific instructions since it seems skills in individual things are important but the ability to combine many areas at once to create beautiful art is more the thing that makes these so astonishing.
So I see:
Leather working
Airbrush painting
Beading
Sewing
Inlay work
What else?
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At my previous employer, I had a boss that would stand over my shoulder and just watch as I designed stuff in CAD… like as if I was entertainment for him. He wouldnt say a word, just watch. Kinda unnerving and creepy sometimes, and I couldnt even pick my nose… err… anyway…
Once he commented “Oh, dang you are fast at that and make it look so easy.”
I replied “I would hope so after 25 years of suffering through this crap.”
It’s not arrogance or being a brag. One of my other co-workers would say “It’s called Competency.”
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haha. Once a bunch of years ago one of the interns was trying to discharge one of my patients, and was crawling along, and the ambulance was waiting and the nursing home was calling us about deadline, and finally I couldn’t take it, so said, sorry I’m taking over, and blew through all the administrative crap it takes to move someone out of the hospital in a few minutes. She stood there awed and saw “wow, you’re the best intern I’ve ever seen!”… Glad my two board certifications has qualified me to be an excellent intern…
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Oooo, classes! Yes! 
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It bugs the crap out of me when someone does that but I imagine for your boss it was like watching the glowforge or an fdm printer run. There is just something mesmerizing about the act of watching something complex come into being from iterative motion. But then again I’m the guy who sometimes gets trapped watching the clothes tumbling at home.
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I can watch 5 axis CNC videos on YouTube all day long.
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I mean. In her defense. Two board certifications would make you the most amazing intern. Should you find yourself in another internship. Which obviously you aren’t. But if you were 
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Well, I am sort of my own intern most of the time (most attending physicians don’t have their intern skills anymore). Since 50% of my clinical effort is as a nocturnist (overnight by myself on a non-teaching service) I am a “ResInternAttend” since I fulfill all 3 roles… Yeah, having 50-60 patients to cross cover and admitting 10-15, makes you a VERY efficient intern; or you quit fast…
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Wow, I’m honored. Your work is exceptional, can’t wait to see how it evolves with the laser!
Oh, good question! Let’s see, skills used include:
leatherwork
basic sculpting
hand painting (still need to learn how to use an air brush!)
beadwork
sewing
wirework
Some of my work also incorporates a bit of carving and tooling, though I tend to just do small tooled details or accents (several artists use these techniques as central features of their work, and it can be very beautiful):
I used to do a lot of featherwork on fans and regalia for Pow Wow dancers, and I love to bring those techniques in to my mask making when possible:
I think that’s about it as far as techniques used … though I’m hoping that the Glowforge will enable me to add some new skills and materials to my repertoire!
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I think that one with the leaves is my absolute favorite. (Wish I’d seen some of those back in my college days…they would have been a knock-out at parties.) 
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Here are a couple of tutorials from artisans that I like:
These two are from Andrea Masse of Merimask Designs. She does exceptional work.
This video tutorial is by Angela Sasser, who is (I believe) one of Andrea’s proteges.
They both use heavier leather than I do, as their styles are very focused on tooling and heavier leather allows you to get more depth and detail in your tooling. My work focuses a bit more on the shaping and sculpting aspects, which works better with slightly lighter weights of leather than they use (most of my work is 4-5 oz leather, though sometimes I use even lighter weights for fine details or layers).
Leather is one of the most forgiving mediums out there, and it’s very easy to learn.
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Those are hand painted?? OK, that made the wow factor go up way more! Those subtle gradations on the top wings and masks are hand done?
Love the last feathered one. The color mix is so amazing.
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The shapes are compelling and the motion so attractive in the designs. But the colors. That’s what gives me the most smiles. It’s a palette that I is very attractive to me.
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