colourless green ideas sleep furiously

JACK: Out comes a woman dressed in black. Like a fairly normal—well, she looks normal, but she doesn’t look normal for a circus. Slim-faced, pale woman, wearing black, people behind her wheeling a huge cart covered in a black cloth. And the lights in the circus dim, and she pulls the black cloth off to reveal a sort of gigantic—you know those, like, those doors that look like a mouth that you sometimes see? Like, big, weird, grotesque carnival door that’s also a mouth? Door that’s a mouth.

AUSTIN: Ah. Yeah. Yeah, I think I know what you mean. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

JACK: Yeah, if you Google image ‘door that’s a mouth—’

AUSTIN: You’ll find things like this.

JACK: Yeah. And she says, ‘You know, ladies and gentlemen, this next act is called Disappear Altogether and Never Return. I would like a volunteer.’

[SYLVI AND KEITH LAUGH]

JACK: And there’s like a murmur among the crowd, and she begins to make her case. Which is that this act will cause one member of the audience who steps into the mouth to disappear altogether and never return. They will be free of all obligations, she can’t tell you where you’re going to go or what you’re going to see. But she speaks about it with a kind of reverential purity, that there is something majestic and terrifying here. And, you know, lads in the crowd, young lads try and egg each other on to like, ‘oh yeah, you go do it, Dave. Sangfielle Dave.’ Or whatever, and ‘you’re too scared’ and—

SYLVI: Oh, Sangfielle Dave.

AUSTIN: Sangfielle Dave.

JACK: Until eventually, you know, a small man is like ‘I’ll do it, I’ll do it.’ And he comes down the stairs and the crowd goes deathly quiet. It’s sort of the mood of a public execution or some sort of bizarre piece of church performance. And he steps—

KEITH: It’s sort of is a public execution.

JACK: Well, no, he’s not being killed. He’s disappearing altogether, and he will never return. Steps into the mouth.

SYLVI: We’ve already had a public execution today.

JACK: Yeah, we’ve already had one!

SYLVI: It’s a little same-y.

AUSTIN: You’re back at ‘I didn’t kill anyone’ real quick there, Jack.

[JACK LAUGHS]

AUSTIN: They just—Sangfielle Dave just walked through the door.

JACK: Well, no, it’s not a door. He just stands in the mouth of the door.

AUSTIN: Oh, right. Uh-huh.

JACK: And you know, other acts have a curtain involved, or whatever. But no. He just disappears. And there’s like a shocked moment of silence for about 15 seconds, and then the pale-faced woman and her attendants put the black cloth back on the mouth, and they wheel it back out of the arena. Nobody quite knows what they saw.

In order of appearance on the show, we have the following masks and not-masks:

Episode 9: The red bauta they wear when they meet the group in Blackwick.

I experimented with plaster of Paris for this one but the structure of the (normal-sized) bandages was too loose, so this is polymer clay (most of the masks are). No tricorn, as several attempts with fabric failed, but I hope to figure it out soon and will add pics then.

Episode 10: The mourning mask of feathers and lace.

I loved making this one, it was so much fun. I spent a shocking amount of time looking for suitable lace (I like to buy second-hand for miniature projects, but ended up going to the fabric store for this). If you haven’t, look up the mourning masks Austin references here and here, they’re both sick.

Episode 12: The moretta mask they wear as they ask for their skull back. This is the mask you hold in your mouth, so I added a little bead on the inside for that but it doesn’t photograph great (weird, black on black). Many of the moretta masks I saw online were velvet but I hate glueing fabric onto anything because it never comes out quite right and I didn’t know how else to get the curve, so this is polymer clay covered in the results of going at a pipe cleaner with scissors. Since this mask does not cover as much of the neck as the previous ones, Dyre needed a cravat.

Oops shoulda given Dyre Ode his skull!

This is the void under Dyre’s hair. The hair is detachable, and the skull slots right into it. The skull, as described on the show, is weirdly tall and square at the top, and has strange markings on it.

Okay good now it’s in place, whew. Everyone have a soothing cup of tea.

Episode 13: Dragon mask at the market in Blackwick.

Another favourite, both to make and in how it came out. I covered red polymer clay in gold foil and then rolled it out, which creates this fun almost scale-like effect. After baking, I glued on the small sequins around the eyes. While I was shopping for the lace I found this sick organza and thought it could be added around the dragon mask – an dragon can sometimes look like a bearded lizard, right?

Episode 13 as well: The moon mask with the halo as he gets on the train. Big thanks to the people who advised me on this one, I wanted a hammered metal effect but also the sort of uneven pattern of light and dark you have on our moon. This is silver foil on polymer clay.

Episode 29: Mosaic mask that looks like the ocean.

I love the look but it’s maybe just a tad too big for Dyre here. Also I have cursed myself with glitter.

If you’ve been wondering, Dyre Ode’s body is a repurposed Stacie doll painted with acrylic for black sleeves, white gloves and (rarely seen) brown boots. So there’s not actually any bones to pop in except the skull but it is a "collect them all" situation for Dyre Ode so that’s what’s on the packaging 😉

I hope you like it! I had such a blast making this. Thank you for the prompt, creakysocks, and happy Secret Samol!