Mask Guide

• Okay this is going to be just a quick run on how to make your very own mask out of sculpey, a friend of mine advised me that I should make one for hallowing but that I should make it “Hallowiny” I have no clue what that means and he is not very good at explaining himself so here we go (I think this is what he meant).
• Okay first step, I’ll be making this mask out of hardening oven-bake clay, there are many types and brands, I’ve tried many and the ones that I feel the most comfortable with is Sculpey (I don’t own this brand name or market it, I’m just giving an example). Anyhow, there are many types out there and you should find whichever works best for you, for this project I had the option of sculpey original or ultra light.
• This is going to be done with Ultra light because original sculpey tends to be a lot heavier and it can be a pain to wear as a mask due to its weight (Although Original is a lot easier to mold and work with), just a fair warning though; ultra light can be a pain to work with if you aren’t used to this marshmallow-feeling clay that is very easy to shape but very easy to screw up since a simple touch of anything can leave marks on it. I suggest getting familiar and playing around with some of this clay until you get the feel of its texture before attempting anything that is going to take you long, so that you don’t end-up feeling a bit disappointed, but I say failure helps you learn.
• I suggest you make a mold of the size of the person’s face that is going to use this mask. You can make it out of heavy duty aluminum foil; usually made for cooking. I used a plastic mask mold to make my aluminum foil face mold, I have a personal mold but this time I’ll use something simple so anyone can follow with simple materials found around the house or your local store.
• Let’s get back to the clay (Wash your hands before working with it), make sure you cut it into smaller pieces and start softening by kneading it with your hands, the heat from your hands will make this clay soft rather quick and easy to work with. One important thing is to make sure there aren’t any air bubbles inside the clay; an easy way to find out if the clay is ready is by stretching it with both hands and if it doesn’t show any cracks or bubbles and it stretches like dough then it’s ready.
• Now combine all the clay together and start kneading it until you get all the air bubbles out; it should now be easy since it’ll be soft enough to stick together without too much force. Get your aluminum foil mold ready since you are about to shape the mask. Now you have two options from here, you can attach small sheets of clay together to make the base of the mask or do it the easy way by making one sheet of clay big enough to cover all desire areas of the mask. For this I made two sheets and pieced them together to cover the desired area. The key with working with this type of clay is ‘rubbing’ (Not that kind of rubbing), use your fingers to put it together since the heat from your hands will soften it even more to make it a bit sticky and making it easy to put together without leaving any marks. Try to be gentle since this type of clay is very soft and you can easily push into it with your hands leaving marks, also make sure you don’t wash your hand during the handling since you’ll have a sandy feeling that are the particles from the clay on your hands that will help keep the clay from sticking to your hands after working with it for a while.
• Okay, now you should have just a generic mask with no detail or shape to it, from this point on pick whatever shape you wish to give your clay by adding small sheets on the desire shape; I’m adding just a quick view of how the process go, you can use tools to shape your clay or just your hands, most of what I do I hardly use any tools unless I have to cut the clay but if you want detail on your work you can always enhance it with clay specific tools. When putting together the clay pieces make sure to rub the areas that you wish to stick together to give it enough heat for the clay to soften enough and to make it is easier to work with.
• Once you are about done shaping and putting enough detail on your mask, go ahead and preheat your oven, you can use a regular cooking stove oven for this type of clay and I would advice following the instructions that come together with the clay product. For this type it recommends 275F (130C) for 15 minutes but depending on the thickness of your mask the time can vary (One good reason to read the instructions). For this mask I baked it for 20 minutes but over baking it can sometimes make it crack so be careful on the time.
• Finally remove the back aluminum foil and after this point you can use sandpaper or cutting tools like a scalpel to take the imperfections out of your mask and you should have a hard baked light mask.
• This is just a quick guide and I can’t guarantee that you’ll get the desire result on your first try, you sometimes have to try multiple times and one important step is getting used to the clay you are working with. I’ll try to add another guide for coloring but for now this is part of the process to making your very own oven-bake clay mask, if anyone has specific questions about this process that you might be curious about, you are more than welcome to ask me.
• Thanks for reading and good luck.