Decorative Mask for Halloween and a Witch Story

Decorative Halloween Mask

Obviously my Halloween projects for this year were decorative masks.  Some years I get really inspired and do something major, such as the Faux Tesla Coil Diorama project from last year.  Other years I am so busy with other projects that I need to do something less labor intensive.  This year my project was to create some decorative masks.  (I'll leave wearable masks for a future project.)

On last Wednesday's blog post, I described the basics of making a lift mask.  Today's mask is a lift mask of the the mask I showed on last Wednesday's blog.  When I created the first lift mask, I was of two minds about how to decorate it.  I kept going back and forth.  Did I want to make a it into a witch or a devil.  Finally I thought, "Why not both?"  So I used the as yet undecorated mask I had made to make a second lift mask. 

Basically it was the same procedure I used for the other mask.  I  covered the mask with plastic wrap to protect it from the moisture in the papier mache.  Then I added a layer of aluminum foil.  The foil was slipping around so I used tape in strategic spots to hold everything in place.  Learn from my error on this.  I had used masking tape.  By the time the project was finished the masking tape had bonded so tightly that I could hardly get the masks apart.  It would have been much better to use a low tack blue painters tape for that.  Anyway, I added a layer of masking tape over the foil and then added layers of papier mache.  Once the papier mache was dry, I removed the mask from the other mask and added a layer of masking tape and layers of papier mache to the back.  Then it was ready to decorate.  The face is painted with acrylic paints.  The hair is braided and painted rafia applied to the mask with hot glue.

Sometimes when I am working on a project, I imagine a back story for the project.  The back story can give me some idea of how the piece should be decorated, and it helps pass the time when I'm doing something repetitive.  I was thinking that the story would be a basic Halloween story:  boiling cauldrons, eye of newt, etc.  Or maybe a sea witch, with dripping kelp for hair.  But the story that came up was something different.  It told me of women exhausted and bewildered.  Women who started out on an ordinary day only to find themselves incarcerated and accused of Witchcraft before evening.  I began thinking about the Salem Witch Trials.

Many have heard of the theory that the Salem Witch Trials being caused by ergot poisoning.  That is not the only theory out there.  This theory carries much more weight.  In her book The Devil in the Shape of a Woman:  Witchcraft in Colonial America , Carol F. Karlson put forth a new theory using statistical analysis.  Once it was looked at in this light, some information became glaringly obvious.  The majority of women accused of witchcraft were widows or single women who had inherited and were managing property or a business.  In some cases there was documentation that there were property disputes with neighbors.  Plenty of people at the time thought that it was scandalous that a woman was running a business.  If the woman was somehow put out of the way, well, someone else would have to take over the business.  A few coins dropped in a girl's pocket to shout Witchcraft! is a much more reasonable scenario.  The charge of Witchcraft was very hard to disprove because there was no evidence other than someone saying so.  A young girl would not necessarily have the cognitive ability to understand just how much damage she was doing.  Once things got started, crowd psychology took over.  Fear of the world of the unseen was a major part of the religious doctrine of the time.  Cotton Mather wrote about it extensively.  And who knows, maybe even a little of that alleged ergot poisoning added fuel to the fire.

One other event strongly points to the start up of the witchcraft accusations being a deliberate act.  The  Charter for the colony lapsed.  There was a period of time that there was no valid document in effect.  With no documentation stating that the colony had to follow English Law, things happened.  The Salem Witch Trials were held during the period that no charter was in effect.  When the Charter was reinstated, the remaining prisoners were released.  Imagine that.

The governor of the colony during that time was Governor Spotswood.  Guess where the governor went after he left the Massachusetts colony?  He came to Virginia.  Guess what happened next?  Women were accused of Witchcraft.  They had a Witch Ducking.  Witch ducking happened in one of two ways.  A woman was strapped into a chair held by a long arm on a swivel.  The chair was swung out into the river and submerged.  The second way was to tie the suspected witch's right thumb to the left toe.  A rope was tied around the waist so that the witch could not escape.  Then the person was thrown into the river.  In either case, the outcome was the same.  If the person was able to float to the surface, she was said to have "rejected the baptismal waters" which meant she was a witch and subject to imprisonment and most likely further torture.  If the woman drowned it meant she was innocent.   That is kind of a no win situation for the accused. 

Witch Ducking was not just used in cases of suspected witchcraft.  It was also used as a punishment for women who were considered "scolds."  These were women that displayed anger,  expressed their opinion, had quarrels with others, or in some cases were considered a public nuisance.  This could be a woman that was inebriated, elderly, had dementia, or had in some way become a ward of the public.  Men could be ducked as well, but mainly only if they were charged with witchcraft. 

Grace Sherwood was the last known person convicted of Witchcraft in Virginia.  She was known as the Witch of Pungo, because she lived in Pungo, Princess Anne County.  She was ducked at a place known as Witch Duck Point.  Her charge was that she bewitched a woman causing her to miscarry.  She had also been accused of bewitching a bull causing its death, and bewitching hogs and cotton fields.  The miscarriage charge was the only one that stuck.  (Maybe not  so far fetched.  She was a midwife.  Midwives of the time would have know about concoctions that could cause a miscarriage  No proof that she did this, but it is a possibility  However, I'd like better proof than a trial by ducking to determine guilt or innocence.)  After her trial by ducking, she spent eight years in prison. 

I grew up in Princess Anne County where Witch Duck Point is located. (Later annexed to become part of Virginia Beach)  At the time, the area was basically woodland.  We used to tell all sorts of ghost tales about it.  Then the area started to become built up.  Developers started to say that no one had ever been ducked there.  I guess it was bad for business to try to sell real estate where torture had taken place.  Anyway in 2006, Governor Tim Kaine recognizing that her conviction was a "miscarriage of justice."  A statue of Grace Sherwood is displayed near Sentara Bayside Hospital.

A note to readers:  On my next Sunday blog post I will be posting on the Shaman Staff walking stick project.  Next Wednesday's post will be on some other interesting phenomena related to witches, magicians, and wizards to end up this years Halloween series of posts.