Mask Workshop

Leather mask workshop: 11 - 20 June 1999

Day 1

Movies require Quicktime

Making a negative plaster mould of your own face:

Use pottery plaster (or casting plaster), plastic sheeting, glad wrap, sticky tape, vaseline.

Cover table with plastic sheet. Lie down on table using a neck roll. Cut a 'U' out of another chest sized piece of plastic so that it fits round the jaw line and up as far as the ears. Wrap gladwrap over the hair line.

Vaseline the face, hairline, eyebrows, eyes carefully.

Spoon dry plaster gently into a small bowl of tepid water, turning the bowl as you go. Once islands of plaster start to form on the surface of the water, use the spoon to stir the plaster from the bottom of the bowl to release all the bubbles of trapped air in the plaster.

Gently spoon the plaster onto the face. Be careful to leave airholes at the nostrils.

Leave till plaster has heated and cooled down. Then gently work the muscles of your face to release the mould from your skin.

Remove the negative mould.

Clean any excess vaseline from the negative.

Set the negative mould on a clay base and check that it is level side to side and top to bottom. Fill any gaps in the negative with small amounts of clay. Draw a pencil line as high, symmetrical and close to the outer edge of the negative mould as possible.

Fill negative mould with fresh plaster making positive as deep as possible. Thickened plaster can be added to create depth particularly at the earline. Blow the plaster into the fine details with your breath.

View a quicktime introduction by master mask maker, Paolo Consiglio.

A quicktime montage of scenes from Day 1.

A quicktime interview with Kane & Liam on Day 1.

Send feedback to:

Bill Blaikie
Workshop organiser
Coordinator BA Communication Theatre / Media
Charles Sturt University

Paolo Consiglio's website can be visited at: www.webitaly.com/personae/welcome.html

Making a negative plaster mould of your own face: Use pottery plaster (or casting plaster), plastic sheeting, glad wrap, sticky tape, vaseline.
Cover table with plastic sheet. Lie down on table using a neck roll. Cut a 'U' out of another chest sized piece of plastic so that it fits round the jaw line and up as far as the ears. Wrap gladwrap over the hair line.
Vaseline the face, hairline, eyebrows, eyes carefully.
Spoon dry plaster gently into a small bowl of tepid water, turning the bowl as you go. Once islands of plaster start to form on the surface of the water, use the spoon to stir the plaster from the bottom of the bowl to release all the bubbles of trapped air in the plaster.
Gently spoon the plaster onto the face. Be careful to leave airholes at the nostrils.
Leave till plaster has heated and cooled down. Then gently work the muscles of your face to release the mould from your skin.
Remove the negative mould.
Clean any excess vaseline from the negative.
Set the negative mould on a clay base and check that it is level side to side and top to bottom. Fill any gaps in the negative with small amounts of clay. Draw a pencil line as high, symmetrical and close to the outer edge of the negative mould as possible.
Fill negative mould with fresh plaster making positive as deep as possible. Thickened plaster can be added to create depth particularly at the earline. Blow the plaster into the fine details with your breath.
View a quicktime introduction by master mask maker, Paolo Consiglio.
A quicktime montage of scenes from Day 1.
A quicktime interview with Kane & Liam on Day 1.