Tools of the Trade
Day Nineteen: Lightboard
A few years ago, I spent each day in January writing about a different tool I use in my maskmaking. As I am currently redesigning my entire website in the new year, I thought it might be nice to revisit this project. Each day in January 2021, I’ll share a different item that I use in my studio. I hope some of these can help other people who are interested in making wrestling masks.
When I was growing up, my mom owned a needlepoint store, and she drew a lot of original art for canvasses. She had a light table that she made herself, to help her trace her art. It was basically a light bulb fixture inside a wooden box that had a plexiglass top. You’d lay your art on top, a blank piece of paper on top of that, and then you’d turn on the lamp and the light would shine through both layers of paper and let you trace the image on the bottom sheet, making changes to the art as you wished. Much later, technology had advanced, and one Christmas I got a fancy LED light board as my main gift. They were fairly expensive (and at the time, only available at fancy art stores), but now they were much more portable, flatter, brighter, gave a more dispersed light, and didn’t get hot! It was a miracle! I still have that board, but now that time has passed and prices have dropped on LED components, I now use an inexpensive A4-sized LED board that’s super-thin, super-bright, super-handy, AND is rechargeable via usb, so I don’t have to fumble with wires! Brilliant! I just stash it on a shelf where I can grab it, use it, and shove it right back again. I use it just as my mom used her old light table, to trace and modify art, and also to align multipart patterns that are too big to print all on one sheet (as seen here).