Ichabod: Completed

I've remade the straps, and painted them black as shown below. Let me explain why these straps were more of a challenge to design than my other steampunk masks.

After making a traditional looking plague doctor mask last year, I quickly followed it up with a steampunked version, Dr. Beulenpest. The traditional mask is rather squat, and Beulenpest is sleeker, with a longer narrower beak.

Here is the (more or less) historically correct version plague doctor mask.

This is Dr. Beulenpest. Notice the longer, narrower beak.

And here, ladies and gentlemen, is Ichabod. Longer and narrower than even Beulenpest. The only way I could slim the good doctor down further was to move the bottom of the mask from below the wearer's chin to near his mouth. Notice in the photo above the black lambskin throat cover, which hides the wearer's chin, and gives more of an avian illusion.

In order for the wearer to speak and be generally comfortable, the base of the mask must be lifted off of the mouth, and not be touching it. While my other masks rest on any part of the face and head that they touch, the Ichabod straps need to hold the mask cantilevered. And so I came up with a headband and a top strap that can be adjusted to fit securely on the head without relying on pulling back on the mask. I then simply attached the mask to the headband with rivets.

The mask is now complete, and I will list it on eBay this afternoon. I am very pleased with how it turned out, and feel that it is some of my best work. Below are a couple more shots of the finished Ichabod.

Here is the eBay listing with more photos.