Contemporary African brass mask with loop hole on the top, allowing it be hung or worn as a pendant on a necklace. One of the components of brass is copper; when the percentage of copper in the alloy the appearance of the mask is more reddish, like copper. When the percentage of copper is lower the appearance of the mask is more yellowish.

This pendant was made by the ancient traditional lost wax casting process where the object is first shaped of bees wax then covered with a sand & clay investment. This unit is dried and then baked so the investment hardens and the wax runs out leaving the space into which the molten brass is poured. Once cooled the investment is removed, broken off, never able to be used again, to yield the object so cast. Every single object of this type, no matter how small, is made this same way, one by one, by hand. As a result of this handmade process each pendant is unique although the design of all is very similar; each pendant has small differences.

In some cases, however, those differences modify the appearance to such an extent that we consider those to be imperfections, or miscast.

This mask measures 1 3/4" tall (4 cm)