How to make a terrible mask with your own hands?

Masks and costumes for Halloween, unusual, strange and frightening - is not only a tribute to tradition, but also a way to show imagination, inventing and creating an original carnival image. How to make a terrible mask with your own hands on Halloween? In the article we list a few simple ways.

Simple cardboard mask

How to make a terrible mask with your own hands made of cardboard? The easiest way is to cut out the mask-glasses with slits for the eyes, and then paint or zadekorirovat. This is the best option for a children's masquerade image, for example, if a themed holiday is planned in school: the mask-glasses made of cardboard will not be too frightening or repulsive. In addition, you can do it with the child. This will require:

• Cardboard and colored paper.
• Glue.
• Markers or colors for coloring.
• Soft rubber band or tape.

First of all, you need to select an image for the future mask. For Halloween the mask of a spider, bat, pumpkin or funny ghost - Casper is perfect. The mask template can be painted on a cardboard independently, but can be printed from the Internet. Further everything is simple: the cardboard pattern is carefully cut out, colored or made out of elements of colored paper. If desired, you can decorate the mask with sequins, paillettes, appliques and other. On the sides, you need to make holes in which the ribbon or elastic is threaded.

The volumetric mask from a cardboard

To make the usual mask-glasses volumetric, having supplemented a product with details from a cardboard or a papier-mache, is one more variant how to make a terrible mask by own hands (photo see below in article). This will require:

• Draw (print) and cut out mask templates and volume elements.
• Details of papier-mâché, if any, are prepared in advance and dried well.
• To glue or to join stapler all details of a mask, to make lateral apertures.
• Color the mask. If there are items made from papier-mâché, they must first be primed and dried again before coloring.
• Pass the ribbon or ribbon into the side openings.

Volumetric masks: what can I do?

Really impressive looks original volume mask, covering the face completely or only half. Creating such a product will require patience and accuracy, it will take a little longer. How to make a terrible mask of this type? There are several methods available.

1. The most common and affordable technique for manufacturing a three-dimensional mask is papier-mache: gluing a piece of paper.
2. How to make a terrible mask yet? An interesting variant is a three-dimensional mask made from tissue shreds. This technology is similar to papier-mâché and allows you to express your imagination by using fabric blanks of different texture and colors.
3. The most modern, original, beautiful, but also the most expensive material for volumetric masks - plastic or polymer clay. The main condition for working with such material is strict observance of the technology of product creation described in the instruction.

Regardless of what material is planned to make a three-dimensional mask, it is likely that you will have to start working from the manufacture of a gypsum or plasticine base.

Form-base for the mask

Why do I need a form for a mask? And is it possible to do without it? Often, you can find a description of the process of manufacturing a three-dimensional mask made of papier-mâché, which is made directly on the face. This method, of course, saves time, but to mold and dry the mask is not very convenient. Also, the gypsum or plasticine form can be replaced, for example, with a hockey mask or inflated balloon.

To produce a more accurate form, the base can be made from plasticine: either fashion the head of the character whose mask is planned to be made, or make an anatomical cast from the face.

However, experienced masters advise nevertheless not to be lazy and before making a terrible mask, to make a plaster mold. Such a base can be used several times, in addition, the gypsum mold is suitable not only for working in the papier-mache technique, but also for making masks from plastic with subsequent heat treatment of the product. You can make a plaster mold in two ways:

1. Make a cast of your face with a cooking foil. In the resulting shape, gently pour the gypsum, avoiding deformation of the foil, and allow the gypsum to solidify. After drying, remove the foil.
2. Another way is somewhat more complicated: to make a plaster cast on the face. Independently to make such form-basis it does not turn out, the assistant who will impose plaster mass will be required. Making the impression is done in this order:

• First you need to remove the hair under the bathing cap, fix the shape of the eyebrows gel or wipe with a wet piece of soap and well spread the skin of the face with a fat cream (baby or petroleum jelly will do). Further into the nostrils are inserted the tubes for the cocktail (the ends of the tubes need to be wrapped with gauze or cotton wool). This will allow you to breathe freely during the procedure.
• After all the preparations, it remains only to sit comfortably on the floor, fixing the head with moist towels or an absorbent cloth, so that the gypsum mass does not drain onto clothing and on the floor during application.
• The assistant should quickly apply a thin layer of gypsum paste, starting from the middle of the face to the edge. Liquid gypsum can be replaced with gypsum bandages from the pharmacy, then they must be applied, previously cut into pieces and soaked in warm water.
• When the surface of the gypsum mold hardens, the assistant can accurately remove the impression. Finally, the shape should be aligned at the edges.

What materials are needed for the mask of papier-mâché?

Papier-mâché, that is, molding from "chewed paper", is an affordable, convenient and inexpensive answer to the question "how to make a terrible mask with your own hands." To work in this technique you will need:

• Paper sheets. Suitable ordinary unnecessary magazines, newspapers, flyers, paper napkins and so on.
• Bonding agent. It can be PVA glue or wallpaper glue. But since the mask will be in contact with the skin of the face, it is best to prepare a paste made of flour and water (1: 2).
• Greasy cream or oil to lubricate the base mold. This will allow you to easily remove the finished product from the mold in the future.

Step-by-step procedure for creating a mask from papier-mache

How to make a terrible mask with your own hands made of paper? The procedure is quite simple:

• On the base form, a layer of grease - a greasy cream (Vaseline, vegetable oil) is applied.
• Paper sheets need to be broken into small strips and soaked in a container with a paste, the thicker the paper - the longer.
• Paper strips are glued to the substrate layer by layer, gradually forming a mask. It is important to apply each subsequent layer exactly, without air bubbles and unevenness.
• In the process of modeling, the mask can be fixed with one or two layers of bandage or strips of soft tissue, laying them between layers of paper strips.
• Dry the mask for 2-3 days at room temperature. After drying, cut the side holes for the rubber band (tape), align the slits for the eyes, nose, mouth.
• The mask should be removed from the mold, primed and painted. For coloring of a paper mask the usual gouache or oil paints will approach.
• At will, the mask can be decorated with bright details (feathers, sequins, elements of fabric, metal and so on), thread the elastic band (ribbon) in the side slits.

Plastic mask with thermal treatment

Plastic, hardening after heating at high temperature, is a material very popular among people who are keen on needlework. However, working with it requires strict adherence to technology and safety rules. For this reason, the process of creating a mask should always begin after reading the instructions on the plastic packaging. Especially it is necessary to remember that the technology of operation and the processing temperature may differ for different grades of this material. How to make a terrible mask of polymer clay (plastics)? To create a mask from this material, you will need:

• A set of colored plastic with instructions.
• Utensils and a stack (knife) for work.
• A container with warm water.
• Oven (oven in the stove).
• Gypsum form for the mask.
• Decorative elements (optional).

Important! Do not use food for cooking with thermoplastic. The oven must be washed with water and detergent after work.

Manufacturing of a carnival mask from plastic is carried out in several stages:

• The form of gypsum is smeared with oil or greasy cream.
• Pieces of material soften according to the instructions on the package. For faster heating, it is often advisable to use warm water or non-hot air from a conventional hair dryer. Of these, a mask is applied on the gypsum base.
• It is important to avoid getting on softened plastic dust, small debris, hair or threads.
• When molding on the mold, you must immediately cut the nasal and eye holes of the mask. For a beautiful close fit of the mask to the face, you should try to create a smooth transition to the gypsum form, nullifying the plastic mass in the eye area and around the edges of the mask.
• All the slots, including the holes for the rubber bands (tape), need to be done until the plastic has solidified.
• If desired, the mask can be decorated, at once, before heat treatment, with heat-resistant parts made of metal, glass, stone and other.
• Heat treatment is carried out in strict accordance with the instruction: in the oven, preheated to the recommended baking temperature, a plaster mold with a molded mask is placed. The product is kept in the oven specified by the manufacturer time, after which the mask should gradually cool in the oven.
• Important! The temperature of the oven must be constantly monitored. All varieties of plastic may begin to melt with the release of toxic smoke if the temperature in the oven reaches 170-175 ° C. If this happens, you must immediately turn off the oven, open the doors and windows for ventilation and leave the dwelling until the final weathering.
• It is allowed to re-heat the plastic. After complete cooling, the mask can be added to the molded parts and baked repeatedly.
• The cooled product is neatly removed from the mold. A ready-made mask can be primed and painted, glued decorative elements.