The opportunity to honor your pregnancy with a bellymask may be a once in a lifetime experience that you will cherish forever, a moment in time enjoyed and immortalized.

As your baby sculpts your body from within, I will capture your beautiful form from the outside using a relaxing and pleasurable technique of bellymasking. Through this process you will have a sculpture which honors you and your baby during this precious, yet transitory passage. I invite you to enjoy this reflective and nurturing time with your baby.

I offer one-on-one professional bellymasking sessions in my Sebastopol, California studio or in your own home. I am also available to create a custom bellymask at your baby shower or blessingway ceremony or to guide others in the process.

If you choose to have a professionally created mask by me in my studio, the beauty and inspiration of the pregnant bellymasks adorning my walls will surround you. There you will have the advantage of experiencing my simple yet highly skilled masking technique, which will guarantee you the most beautiful and durable heirloom-quality bellymask possible.

Francine's Studio

You may also have the choice between several different styles of masks depending on your personal preferences. For example, some choices are casting your belly, your belly and breasts, or your full torso including your neck and shoulders. You may include hands in any of these styles.

My bellymasking process is nurturing, exhilarating, and safe. To ensure your well being, comfort, and proper support, you will be cast in a seated position. The standing pose is not safe for most pregnant woman to maintain for a bellymasking session.

Using an ergonomic chair, your position will be customized to assure your comfort and to enhance your form for the masking process. While comfortably seated, layers of warm, moistened gauze are applied to your torso. As each strip of gauze is placed on your body it is smoothed to conform to your unique shape. It feels comforting as it embraces you. The plastergauze sets within minutes. Typically, a bellymask takes one hour to cast. It is then easily removed from your body and the edges are trimmed to your specifications. The final touches, such as reinforcement for strength and durability, gessoing for protection, and the attachment of mounting fixtures, occur over the next few days to complete your heirloom sculpture. It is then delivered to you in its finished and refined state of beauty.

Employing techniques learned at the Art Institute of Chicago and the California College of Arts and Crafts, my experienced hands have cast hundreds of pregnant women since 1986.