MAKING MASKS

Southland Times, Issue 23793, 15 April 1939, Page 8 (Supplement)

MAKING MASKS

An Alaska Spirit Mask This is a good mask for beginners to make. Study the illustration and diagrams. Notice that the mask is a very simple face. The original masks were carved out of cedar, but medium-weight pulp board will do instead. You will want a sheet of such board 15in square. Mark out the shape of the mask in this square. The form will seem much too wide, but remember the board is to be curved. When you have the outline marked symmetrically, copy the face in black waterproof ink, but do not colour. Now cut i out the mask and wet the board on both sides until it will bend easily. Drive a few nails into a plank so that they will hold the mask in the curved position until it has dried and set. A very good way to make sure it will keep its shape is to paste several strips of gummed paper tape on the inside of the mask while it is wet. Cut out the nose from brown paper, bend on lines indicated by dots, and fasten the overlapping tabs of the base with paper tape, but do not stick them on until you have painted the mask, which is the next step. * After the mask is coloured and eyelids applied, mount it on a stick carved and coloured and decorated with a string of beads and feathers. This mask does not need eyeholes, as the masquerader merely holds it in front of his face.

Wolf Mask Study the drawing and you will see that the upper half of the mask is in three planes. The middle plane is the long strip from snout to top of skull, and this is curved in the way previously described. From this curved plane,< on either side.

the upper jaws are bent down. They are two flat planes roughly triangular in shape. Eyeholes are cut as marked on the pattern, and to add to the devilish look of the wolf, paste on upper and lower eyelids of gummed paper.

The under jaw is folded in the middle, making a V-shaped piece, its upper edges notched into teeth. The front of this V-shaped jaw is drawn together and pasted with gummed tape tabs. The jawbones rising at the rear 'spread apart to fit under the upper jays'. To each lower jawbone, on the inside of the mask, fasten a light, short stick. Cigar-box wood is good for this.

Alaska Spirit Mask

To pivot the lower jaw so that it will swing freely, find two very short nails or cut down two larger nails to short brads. Drive these nails from outside the upper jaw. through the upper jaw and lower jaw, and into the sticks. If you care to be more elaborate, an ingenious and startling effect can be. made by arranging a small rubber spring to the jaws so that it will keep the, mouth pulled open. Then when the mask is worn, the wearer’s own chin just fits into the wolf jaw, and as he talks the jaw of the mask moves in perfect time to his words.