Masked Debauchery

So, what’s been up at Ant-hill you ask? Well, we’ve started planning and even planting stuff for the garden, had a big discussion on rodents and the compost, and are expecting a lovely new addition to the Lupien clan (who has an alarmingly large number of facebook friends for someone who’s not born). But what’s probably caused the most ruckus recently was our April 1st masquerade party.

The fact that it was a little chilly and could of been an elaborate april fools prank didn’t scare away our lovely friends and we had a pretty rowdy get together Friday night. In addition to cleaning up the attic, Alex also booked us a local band called Sonar Mail.

For the occasion, I spent some time fashioning a black bird mask and figured I’d post a little information about the construction for those interested:

——————————

The base of the mask was made out of plaster of paris strips which I purchased from Michaels. The exact brand was Rigid-wrap, which I’ve used before to make masks. The process itself is super easy.

Here’s the setup I had in my room.

Now, I made my own mask using a mirror, but it’s probably better to grab an artistic friend. What I had on hand:

• Rigid-wrap
• Two bowls, one for the dry strips, another filled with water for dipping.
• A mirror
• A towel
• Vegetable oil (you can also use vasoline)
• Something that would wash off skin easily that I could use for drawing plans on my face (optional)
• Cardboard (optional)
• Tape (optional)

Before doing anything with the plaster, I did three things:

1. Got my hair out of my face.
2. Came up with a general concept for the mask and drew some plans on my face. I did this with the first thing I found that would easily wash off (a charcoal pen from the art room).
3. Covered my face in vegetable oil. The oil is so that when you take the plaster mask off, after molding it over your face, it won’t take bits of your hair/skin with it. It’s a very important step, but you don’t need to use vegetable oil; I’ve also used vaseline, which worked perfectly fine. Make sure to heavily coat any hair that is near your mask molding skin.

My vision for the mask was to make some sort of raven queen get-up, so I wanted a beak. To do this, I cut out two pieces of cardboard and taped them to my face.

The plastering process itself is messy, but not too difficult to clean up if you plan ahead a little. I placed a towel under me and took off clothing that I didn’t want to get wet/plastery.

Next, I started cutting up the roll of plaster material into smaller strips. After I had a few strips to work with, I dipped them in a bowl of warm water and began to place them over my face. Two to four layers of plaster strips is recommended. Another recommendation is to make sure to add some extra plaster to the areas where you will eventually poke holes for the string that secures the mask on your face. I also made the brow of my mask a bit bigger, to give it a little bit of a sinister look

When I was done, I gave the mask a little bit of time to dry (about 10 minutes) and then slowly pulled it off my face. My beaked creation sat drying on my window sill for a few days, then I spray painted it black. I added feathers using super glue and bought some metallic silver paint to draw some more detailed swirls on the mask.

To poke a hole in the mask, you should get something like a screw and create a hole with a drilling motion (as opposed to a stabbing).

Kira and I helped Jen make a similar plaster mask. She decorated it with red and black modeling clay, which turned out awesome and kinda super-hero-ish.

Becca here also made a plaster mask with looks pretty amazing. She coated the inside with t-shirt fabric which made it much more comfortable to wear.

The final touches to my raven were some hairpins I snagged from Charlotte that I hot-glued feathers too and a custom hair piece from Sue.

——————-

AAaaannndd…here are some obligatory party pictures: