The Wee Peeple Newsletter

Wait.    What the-

oh yes.    The world was just full of unprecedented irregularities
during Month Number Two of the

Hey Grandpa, tell us the story about the Time of the Strange Masks!

Again?  Oh... it was crazy how the whole world suddenly needed more toilet paper than could be supplied...

NO Grandpa, we want to hear about the Strange Masks everyone was wearing back then....

The Tale of a Dollmaker's Disposition on

and how she succumbed once again, to Diversion...

Well, if March was scathingly "irregular"...

April left March in the Dust...

and the Dollmaker, swept along in the flotsam-enriched tsunami of

Well-meaning Efforts to Protect Humanity from Uncertain Molecular Aggression,

 ended up being righteously goaded into becoming

It certainly could be called:

The Art Mask Challenge!

a Dollmaker's Impulse to Respond Artistically to a

Cultural Crisis... the truly offensive

 Lumpy Mask Crisis.

from the start, the Dollmaker KNEW that there was

she was going to get involved in all that "Anonymous Face" Mask-making!!

Really this was no time to affect a Haughty Attitude on Couture...

Effective or Ineffective...

what she called "generic face-diapers" were simply Not Her Style at all!

Nor did the "50 Shades of Bondage" aesthetic appeal to her for going to the store...

...in spite of the obvious attraction that

a simple change of Accessories nails

All Four of these Looks!

"The Hostage", "The Assassin", "The Train Robber", AND "Voldemort"

 As a Dollmaker,

 accustomed to investing  personality into the faces of her dolls,

she just would no more throw a pleated swatch of fabric over a face and call it a Mask-

than she would throw a milk bottle...

although if given the choice.... hmmm

the milk bottle is funnier.

Nor would she ever wear a Mask with the Mouth and Nose

obliterated entirely!

What? Are you Kidding?

Even the most Primitive Societies remembered to include

 Mouths and Noses

in Their Masks!!!

(at this point her Haughtiness was full blown...)

Now the Dollmaker could understand- what with the sheer volume of

protective masks needed, that the SK (Serial Killer) Mask Design would present an easy solution

for the general population and for sure, she gets that "anything is better than nothing"

(hey in Houston they were using Bananas- Really- you can't make this stuff up!)

but, for herself, the Dollmaker "just couldn't go there"...

Now, Enter - fortunately - These Masks.

whoever posted this picture on Facebook changed the Dollmaker's whole attitude.  

 Compared to the prevailing taste in Facial Snowpants 

  why, these were positively GLAM!

Someone was at least Parodying the Horror!

Now this was  a Challenge  she could consider...   

an Authentic Artistic Response to

an Extraordinary Time in History!  A reason to make:

and it seemed there were others, who, preferring that "human look", shared her aesthetic...

So, in the name of Fun, Stubborn Rebellion, Staying Home and Staying Sane

(in that order)

she veered away once again- from Dollmaking...

ending up joining the Millions of Home-bound Crafters whose sense of civic duty

 and love for Humanity prompted Diversions into

Well, alrighty then... Diversion

not totally unfamiliar territory there...

so...

especially Pandemic Mask Making- should logically start with the FIT.

The Dollmaker carefully copied and sewed

 the Standard Pattern widely distributed on the Internet

and it fell right off the back of her head. oh dear.

It can't fall off in the middle of a Pandemic!

so... the first thing to do was to re-design the pattern.    Her Art Mask Design ties at the top back of the head.   the Fabric is soft, the fit is snug and the Mask stays on.

 her First Masks, admittedly

were pretty horrible

...made from "whatever was available around the house"...

the First Masks had Pipe Cleaners sewed with a zig-zag stitch

 into the bridge of the nose with her "standard black thread"

(she always used black and didn't actually have any other thread colors!)

This looked awful.

And the Pipe Cleaners proved to be too flimsy.

 Nevertheless

the early masks were a comfortable fit and

passed the Walmart-during-a-Pandemic-Easter Test!

during which the Dollmaker-turning-Maskmaker found nice New Fabrics

in flesh-tone and white with matching Threads!

Score!

The next big Consideration for Pandemic Masks was

the Filter

what with You Tube fairly bourgeoning with Do-it-yourself Tutorials on

it took weeks for the Dollmaker to wade through the claims and statistics on

"Filtration"

but her final test results showed conclusively

that Blue Shop Towels far outdistanced bananas, milk cartons, pointed cardboard party hats...

and the Blue predominated over the White Shop Towels

during the Dollmaker's Rigid Testing methods

(washing dishes for 3 weeks with Blue vs. White)

so, the Blue Shop Towels were the Chosen Ones

but the Dollmaker, improving her technique with every mask,

eventually felt that the Blue on top was too "abrasive"

so she eliminated the White Shop Towels altogether

and added another layer of soft fabric over the Blue...

...one of hundreds of small changes made

resulting in "Test Masks" all over the walls...

So the Art Mask Challenge

 was taken up by the Dollmaker and

swiftly became "not really part of the Wee Peeple business, but, well, alright."

requiring a separate Facebook Page and several pertinent Web Pages:

Art Mask Information

and: ART Mask Gallery

and: How to Purchase an Art Mask through Paypal

The fact of there now being "customers" necessitated

finding ways to Impart the more particular Details

such as:

These are NOT intended to be Medical Grade Masks!

and

How to Measure one's Head for an Art Mask.

and

 The Positioning of the tie bands at the top back of the Head

and

How one must Regard the Art Mask as a Wearable Painting

and refrain from tossing it into the washing machine with the laundry...

Here's the Link to ALL the Answers:

Art Mask Information

 So, just when the Dollmaker had snuggled down into the idea

that she was going to spend her Spring mornings

listening to the birds, breathing in the heavy scent of Jasmine, counting the snails...

and her leisurely afternoons drinking wine amongst the baby pumpkin plants..

It turned out that she's been Crazy-Busy

filling orders and Experimenting with better designs for the

And it would have seemed like in the year of the

40th Anniversary of the Wee Peeple DOLLS

that Dollmaking would have been "The THING"

ah but, so far- this was not to be.

For now, anyway, the Dollmaker is somewhat caught up in:

The Time of the Strange Masks

link: ART Mask Gallery