Art Study-- Masks: Making the Mask

December art study: Masks. The ladies and gents had a fantastic time. We looked at pictures of masks from around the world, talked and read about the significance of masks in different cultures and reasons people create and wear masks, played with the masks in the dress-up box.

Then we made our own masks. The brave and patient lovely ladies wanted to create plaster masks using their own faces.

Lovely lady, 11, partway through the process.

Interesting aside, something loving husband and I both noticed: In their masks each child (we invited friends over to play with the messy stuff) looked desperately unhappy. They weren't. But something about the absence of facial movement and the covered brows made them look as though they were apathetic, depressed, and a little ticked off all at the same time. People with autism tend to interpret facial expressions with a different part of their brains, so I was thinking that I should show the pictures to this lovely lady and see what she thinks-- I suspect that when viewing her picture she'll tell me that her expression is showing how she actually felt at the time (fine, having fun) rather than how she looks (bored, kind of upset). This lovely lady also has some sensory issues, but she was completely unphased by the whole Vaseline, hardening plaster experience. She practiced piano in the basement the entire time her mask was setting. Her lovely sister breezed through as well, and (fortunate girl) her mask didn't end up quite as lopsided.

Fine young gent, 6, balked after having his face slathered up with Vaseline. Look at that face:

















So we blew up a balloon, covered it with plastic wrap, put a plastic half-mask like this on the balloon, and covered the whole thing with plaster strips. The plastic mask helped us create more realistic eye and nose holes. His mask looks pretty cool, all round and odd, as though he's some kind of alien moon man. Younger brother just started with a plastic half-mask, covered it with plaster strips (bottom right in the picture below) and tootled off to play.

The final product:














Materials
Faces (Real faces, plastic masks, balloons, or some other form that will give you a face-shape)
Vaseline
Plastic wrap
Scissors
Rigid Wrap (or similar product), available at most craft stores
Newspaper
Warm water
Old towels on the floor under your work spaces and rags for wiping hands in your work area
Old towels or rags and soap next to the sink
Camera, because you've got to take pictures of those faces
Something for the kids to read, watch, listen to or make while they're waiting for the mask to dry

How to Make the Masks
Assemble your supplies and prepare the work area. Liberally apply Vaseline to the face, hairline, and eyebrows of the student, or cover your balloon with plastic wrap. Follow the directions on the inside of the Rigid Wrap. After making the masks on small kid faces, I'd recommend cutting half the strips smaller than those recommended in the Rigid Wrap directions, and keep the scissors handy to cut pieces to fit. In a nutshell, you wet the strips and apply them to the face (there are specific directions for creating a good face masks inside the package), smoothing the strips as you go. It took about 15 minutes per child for the actual application. Once application is complete, let the wrap dry for 20-30 minutes. Gentle pull the mask off the face.

Make sure you allow plenty of time for the project: Applying the plaster properly takes time. The Rigid Wrap takes 20+ minutes to dry. And the kids' faces will be pretty slicked up with Vaseline, so allow cleanup time for faces and hands. My kids just waited until evening deal with their hair. The Vaseline was mostly gone after 2-3 washings.

The masks are well worth the good bit of preparation and mess and concentration. We had fun and it really made the masks personal and meaningful. If you knew the three children whose masks are pictured above (one of mine, two from our friends' family) you could pick out immediately which mask belongs to which child. Taking the time and effort to create masks of their own faces also motivated the ladies and gents to really make thoughtful efforts to create the finished product.

Books about masks

Masks Around the World, and How to Make Them (Sharon Cosner)
The Art of African Masks: Exploring Cultural Traditions (Art Around the World) by Carol Finley
We found both of these books at the library.

Masks on the Internet

Masks from Around the World

Mask lesson plans, including mask-making directions and lesson on the cultural and artistic significance of mask-making.