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Description
They are small (5cm) ceramic hand-painted brooches. They started out as masks but along the way i transformed them adding more person-like features , turning them into old wise men , leprechaun like spirits , spiritual monks , farmers , drunken peasants etc.

I'm from Romania and on the 1st day of March we celebrate an old folkloric tradition, Mărțișor . On this day it is custom to offer a talisman with a red and white string ,it is believed that the wearer will be strong and healthy for the year to come. It is also a symbol of the coming spring. Usually, both women and men wear it pinned to their clothes, close to the heart, until the last day of March, when they tie it to a fruit-tree twig.
Although originally it was just a red and white twisted thread of wool now the mărțișor would have a symbol like a horse shoe , chimney sweep or a four leaf clover (for good luck) , or maybe a ladybug , a rooster or a spring flower (for fertility and beauty) now in more urban areas it can even be a cat or just about anything as long as it has the red and white string (which i didn't had attached when i made this photos ... sorry )
Considering this you'll ask then what's the deal with all these freaking looking faces ?
Well you see ... it has something to do with an other folkloric Romanian custom.
The Romanian traditional masks represent real or imaginary animals, characters from the everyday or imaginary world. Mask are used in some customs, rituals or traditional dances especially in the winter.
The masks are made especially to look ugly so that it can scare the bad spirits away , cleansing the person who is wearing it of any evil that may come.

So i figured it would make a lot of sense to mash these two together and this is the result.

Description
They are small (5cm) ceramic hand-painted brooches. They started out as masks but along the way i transformed them adding more person-like features , turning them into old wise men , leprechaun like spirits , spiritual monks , farmers , drunken peasants etc.

I'm from Romania and on the 1st day of March we celebrate an old folkloric tradition, Mărțișor . On this day it is custom to offer a talisman with a red and white string ,it is believed that the wearer will be strong and healthy for the year to come. It is also a symbol of the coming spring. Usually, both women and men wear it pinned to their clothes, close to the heart, until the last day of March, when they tie it to a fruit-tree twig.
Although originally it was just a red and white twisted thread of wool now the mărțișor would have a symbol like a horse shoe , chimney sweep or a four leaf clover (for good luck) , or maybe a ladybug , a rooster or a spring flower (for fertility and beauty) now in more urban areas it can even be a cat or just about anything as long as it has the red and white string (which i didn't had attached when i made this photos ... sorry )
Considering this you'll ask then what's the deal with all these freaking looking faces ?
Well you see ... it has something to do with an other folkloric Romanian custom.
The Romanian traditional masks represent real or imaginary animals, characters from the everyday or imaginary world. Mask are used in some customs, rituals or traditional dances especially in the winter.
The masks are made especially to look ugly so that it can scare the bad spirits away , cleansing the person who is wearing it of any evil that may come.

So i figured it would make a lot of sense to mash these two together and this is the result.