Starter Kit. Idea 27 of 500. Cluster 2
Mask carving workshops
The mechanism, from the book
The craft cannot be copied and the object can. In Europe people queue to watch glass being blown and then buy the glass.
The first step
Find a mask carver whose workshop visitors can reach, and ask whether they would teach a half-day class carving a small mask blank. Photograph a finished student mask beside one of the master's, then show both photographs to three tour drivers who pass that way and offer them a commission per booking. Bookings from drivers within the month are the proof.
- Who pays first
- Tour drivers looking for a paid stop their clients will thank them for, and visitors who want to carve a mask, not only buy one.
- What leaves today
- Masks sell as curios for small sums; teaching the carving sells the tradition and keeps the carver's skill paid.
Ask first
- National Crafts Council. Ask which carvers they know who could teach, and what support exists for workshops.
- Forest Department. Ask which woods can be legally bought for carving and from whom.
Check before you spend
That the wood comes from a legal source, that tools are safe for beginners, and what the carver will be paid for each class.
Find out these three numbers
- What will a visitor pay for a half-day carving lesson?
- How many hours does a small mask take to carve?
- What does a block of legal carving wood cost?
A comparison from the book
Sigiriya hub. Appendix
"a making-house at the gate where the mask carvers, the potters and the fresco painters work"
The book puts mask carvers in view at the gate, where visitors already pass.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.