Morgen Schinnour has been busy designing and airbrushing goalie Mask for Canadian and American customers. She is hoping to get more exposure and gain some clients in the Western Hockey League.
A former Drumheller artist is carving her own niche getting noticed at rinks in western Canada, and beyond.
The Mail reported in 2007 of Morgen Schinnour’s success designing a hockey mask that was worn at the 2008 IIHF World Junior Championships. Now based in Lethbridge, she has kept on designing and painting masks and is getting more and more people looking for her work.
Always a hockey fan and former goalie, Morgen, daughter of John and Bev received some early encouragement, which kept her going.
“I found an auction on E-bay to buy designed goalie masks. From there, I won the auction and sent my mask away to Michigan to get it painted by a woman named Debbie. She painted my first helmet, and I asked her how she did it. She sent me a starter airbrush kit,” Morgen told The Mail.
Since then, she won the contest in 2007 to design a mask for the World Juniors. Steve Mason, now with the Philadelphia Flyers, wore her mask as Team Canada went on to win gold. Schinnour has continued to hone her craft and building a clientele for Schinny Designs. Her masks are worn throughout Canada and she has clients in the United States. She is a certified painter for Protechsport.
Her technique went from predominantly brushwork to full on airbrush work. While she studied graphic design at SAIT, her craft is honed from plain hard work. She says it takes about 40 hours to complete a mask from initial design sketches to finished product. This can change a lot depending on how intricate the design is. She uses durable water based paints that are strong enough to use for automotive applications.
Like hockey players putting in their hours hoping to get the call up, her business parallels this same process. While she has carved a niche, goalies at minor level might not be ready to invest in a mask, because there is so much movement.
Right now, she has done a sample mask for the Lethbridge Hurricanes.
"That (the WHL) is where you want to start if you want to make it to the NHL. You kind of have to pick a junior goalie and hope they make it and then hope they keep you,” she said.
Schinnour explains that it is hard to break in to the elite group of designers and painters who work for the NHL however, she feels her work could stack up, and she keeps improving.
“I am still learning and practicing. Each helmet I do I learn more things,” she said.
To see more of her work, go to her Schinny Designs Facebook page.