Long red masks, torches, chains and dances by the fire - this is what one might see if they were to visit the rural riverside town of Dunly on All Hallows Eve. Many have heard the tales, but those who've claimed to have witnessed these strange customs, are dismissed as attention seekers, fibbers or madmen. Each autumn, access to the town is cut off, and on October 31st, the residents of Dunly Bridge celebrate the unusual tradition of the Long Face Festival. According to the tradition, those caught without a costume after sunset are put in shackles and caged until the first rays of sun fall on Dunly Bridge on the morning of November 1st. The history of the Long Face Festival dates back over 400 years and is believed to have originated alongside the story of the Devil of Dunly, which is recounted below.
Seeing the children playing the in the street, a carpenter was struck by an idea. He set to work carving mask after mask. While his wife painted the masks red, her sister, a seamstress, made life-size dolls from from left over fabric and stuffed them with straw.
The Devil kept his word and on All Hallows Eve he strode out from beneath the bridge and was pleased to find the town exactly as he had left it. The streets were full of demons and the cages were full of people. It is said that he returns each year to check on his work and each year the inhabitants of Dunly Bridge wear long red masks and dance until dawn on All Hallows Eve.
Reduce: The templates are supplied digitally and people build the masks themselves so there is no energy wasted on manufacturing and shipping bulky templates and masks around the world.
Mask templates purchased (and in some cases slightly modified) from:
Wintercroft Wintercroft - Low-Poly MasksBuild your own Low-Poly animal masks using templates designed by Steve Wintercroft. Our masks are great for Halloween, fancy dress and even weddings.
In 2017, we had the tremendous pleasure of collaborating with 3D artist, woodworker and surfboard shaper Steven Wintercroft in order to showcase four of his masks in a local fashion show called Green is the New Black. Kenichi Woodworking used Wintercroft mask templates to create bamboo veneered foxes, jaguars, unicorn and stag masks. We are currently planning our next collaboration so stay tuned!
These masks take about one to four hours to make and they range from geometric designs of animal, skull, pumpkin and a Stormtrooper helmet. Click here to find out more about these masks and to buy it.
As David Cameron was forced into a climbdown on amendments to the foxhunting ban, pictures emerged of an anti-foxhunting rally outside Parliament. And never has a political protest looked so dramatic. Protesters in identical boxy, foxy masks set off suitably orange flares, and the entire spectacle bore more resemblance to a 50-a-ticket immersive theatre production than a ragtag political rally. Which, of course, makes it a roaring success.
These 4.50 cardboard masks, sold as downloadable templates via wintercroft.com, got the protesters and their placards into every newspaper and website, and Twitter was overrun by foxy-boxy faces. Not since V for Vendetta thrust plastic Guy Fawkes masks onto the faces of the Occupy protesters has a mask played such a pivotal political role.
Politics wasn't exactly the purpose that Steve Wintercroft had in mind for his animal masks, when he began designing and supplying them via craft website Etsy in 2013. "I made my first mask out of necessity," says the 37-year-old designer. "I'd been invited to a friend's fancy dress party, and I always found fancy dress a bit of a pain. Struggling for costume ideas and short of time, I raided the recycling bin and sat down with parcel tape, scissors and plenty of hot tea. An hour or so later, I'd made myself an animal mask."
They succeeded. Wintercroft is now a full-time job for Steve and his wife Marianne, who run the company from their home in Truro, and @Wintercroft has a cult following on Instagram, with more than 6,000 followers. "We're lucky in that many of our customers post pictures of themselves in the masks, so we can see how they're being used," says Steve. "We get a lot of messages from parents who say it gave them a reason to sit down with their kids and bond over a shared project, and this is really valuable. Our masks have been in kids' school plays, they've been rainy day projects for families, they're at festivals, in wedding photos, music videos and photoshoots." And now, political protests.
"It's incredible, really, and very humbling, to see people take a product that we've designed and put it to uses that we never imagined," he says. Not that Steve is apolitical, far from it; Wintercroft have worked with a number of animal charities. "A few months ago we did a campaign with Lush cosmetics, who put our fox masks in shop windows across the country to highlight animal welfare issues during the general election," he says. "The League Against Cruel Sports teamed up with Lush, and it developed from there."
And thrilling as it must be to see his masks on the front page of every newspaper, Steve insists that the credit belongs to the mask-wearers themselves. "Making the mask yourself gives every customer ownership over it, and they all go out and do their own thing. When you put a mask on, you change. It's an excuse to unleash a different part of your personality. And it's up to you what you do with it."
The customability of the masks from Wintercroft polygonal masks (in so much as you can decorate them in any manner that you see fit) makes them even more appealing for use this Halloween and if you want to ramp up your scare count on the 31st, then these cracking masks should definitely help to facilitate that.
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