Dyed and antiqued leather. The lettering was achieved with a fine point sharpie while flat and simply being very, very careful when wetting and sculpting. Preserved with a wax finish. Text is verse I of "Hollow Men" by T.S. Elliot.
This particular mask is reserved for a client, but let me know if you're interested and I can make a similar one for you.
I just "used" my normal handwriting. In cursive, mind, which I never do, but when I do that's what it looks like. When I'm trying to be particularly neat. Which, given such an occasion formal enough to warrant cursive, I suppose I inevitably always am.
I wrote it out while the mask was still flat, and sculpted it after. I don't think I would have been able to keep the lines consistent at all trying to work around the curves like that.