French president Nicholas Sarkozy was at the carnival, too. Another detail from one of the floats. Lights on the floats were changing continuously.
For Beth’s sake and that of others who do not know, Acireale is in Sicily, part of Italy. We went there for a 5-day holiday during the week of carnival.
Construction of papier-mache floats for the next year starts immediately carnival is over. The process for creating the masks and figures is very elaborate. When the design of the figure or mask is ready, the artisan gradually builds the sections of the mouth, nose, eyes, etc. in clay and forms moulds in plaster. Once the plaster is well dry, the clay is separated from the mould. Rectangular strips of newspapers are then applied to the mould using only water (to avoid the paper sticking to the mould). Successive layers are then applied using glue. When the layers of paper are dry, liquid plaster is brushed on the mask. Once it is dried it is polished with sandpaper and ready to be painted utilizing water colors.
Thank you so very much for looking and for your lovely comments on yesterday's picture
Beautiful. I love the different looks from different lighting. Thank for clearing up where Acireale us kicated, I like that you described the process for making these. We did a little of this in Art class but nothing so elaborate. I didn't know these involved strips of paper.
Ours are made of glass fibre and polyester.