For this past craft swap my daughter, mom and I made a Sugar Skull mask for my partner whose birthday happens to land on Dia de los Muertos, or "Day of the Dead" on November 2nd.
My mom made the mask by forming aluminum foil over her own face and covering the shape in paper mache . Once it dried, she removed the foil, cut around the eye and nose holes and put some extra coats of paper mache. Once completely dry, I sprayed it with black paint and applied a crackle medium so the white paint would crack. Then, I sealed it and passed it off to my 8 year old daughter...
Daughter then applied some decorative patterns in metallic paint all over the mask. I had to fill in some places and add a jewel at her request, but most of it is her art. I used a hole punch to make the holes in the mask. I then cut a skull shoelace in half and melted the ends tied in knots to make the strings. My partner can remove the laces in case she wants to hang it on a wall.
Really enjoyable project. Especially with the family helping. Daughter had fun painting. I think she did a great job.
Hang around for project #5, which will be some unusual earrings.
7 comments:
This looks great! When I was a kid, I remember making a mask right on my face, out of a kind of paper mache (if I'm remembering correctly, we actually used like. . . white medical tape? Not the sticky stuff, but the fabric-y stuff, dipped in paper mache solution). It ended up looking a lot more terrifying, and a lot less delightful than this one! Though maybe that was the lack of decoration. . .
I think I know what your describing. It's a plaster bandage stuff, right?
You just reminded me of a class I had back in high school with my sister. Her friend was having a mold made of her face with liquid plaster where you're not supposed to move. She had straws poked in her nose to breath. The sis and I kept making her laugh and got sent out of the class for that period. Oops! :D My sister and I were little devils when put together. Her friemd's mask turned out kinda creepy, too. This paper mache mask was way easier, as I'm sure the tape one you made was. :)
Thanks for commenting!
Mieljolie
Amazing-and something else I can add to my repertoire!!
confused-as-to-how-to-make-the-foil-form-and-then-how-to-paper-mache-over-it.PLEASE_HELP!!!!
Hi Anon. The foil form was made by smashing the foil to her face til it resembled her. Then, carefully gobbing paper mache all over it til it's covered without smashing it. You'll probably want to use a pulp paper mache and not strips for this.
Mieljolie
Thank you for the pictures and description. My daughter's class is doing Dia de los Muertos at school instead of Halloween. This will be scary/glamous and fun to make. Found you by typing "paper mask skeleton DIY" on Google.
Thanks for this
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