AIR DRY SCULPT
You will need a 2 part air dry sculpt to make eyelids and lips on your base.For this, I use Apoxie® Sculpt 2 part epoxy putty. You can purchase it on Amazon, or other places online. For one mask I suggest ordering the 1/4- 1 lb amounts.
It comes in many colors, the most common to find are white, black, and grey. I use black the most, as it matches most animal's lip and eyelid colors, however white is great for painting, for example, yellow eyelids of birds etc. On some sites you can find more colors . |
For larger areas of sculpting, if you're looking to edit the shape of a base without adding too much weight, I use Smooth-On's Free Form Air Sculpting Epoxy Dough (Make sure you purchase the dough not the putty!) it should be very light in color. It is a lot different to work with than apoxie sculpt. It has a more powdery texture and can get very sticky, so keep a bowl of water handy when trying to work with it. You can also purchase this on Amazon or other sites , including through the smooth-on store.
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ELASTIC
For head straps, I personally use 1 1/2 inch knit elastic. I purchase mine in bulk on Amazon, however you can also get some at Joann Fabrics or Walmart. 1 1/2 inch to 2 inch is a good size for the head straps on your base.
For the jaw movement, it's best to use 1 inch elastic, I like to use the ribbed style as pictured to the right. |
EYE MESH
I like to use "DMC Charles Craft Vinyl Aida" for my eye mesh . It can be painted and the vision is great. For black mesh, It can be ordered from multiple sellers on etsy . Other fabrics can be used however, you will want to make sure what you use can be easily seen through. If using white mesh, you must paint the inside portion of it black to reduce glare!
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GLUE
HOT GLUE
For gluing parts to your base, Use a good strong hot glue. I prefer gorilla glue sticks and the gorilla glue gun. They are fantastic and hold well. There may be residue of mold release or just a general smooth texture on the base so I suggest sanding it with a coarse piece of sand paper in areas you're about to glue to to get a good strong hold. I personally order bulk glue sticks from online suppliers but for smaller projects they can just be bought at the store. |
GLUING SILICONE TONGUES
The only thing I need to use a heavier duty glue to stick is the silicone tongue to the jawset after it's painted. You will want to scratch up or sand the surface of the lower jaw piece where the tongue attaches, then use a 2 part epoxy glue to glue it to the jawset! this is a resin-like hold! I like to use Loctite or Jb-Weld, regular epoxy works but if you prefer to use heavy duty that's great too! |
GLUING EYES
For gluing eye designs to eye blanks, either acrylic cabochons or glass flat eyes, Use CLEAR (this is very important!) E6000 glue. you can hand draw eye designs or digitally design and print them out! Consider that halfround cabochon (follow eyes) magnify the image so you can see imperfections a lot more. |
FOAM PADDING
I use 1/2 inch upholstery foam from Joann Fabrics cut in pieces to fit the forehead and the chin area of the mask. I use spray glue to glue a Lycra or other soft stretchy fabric (also purchased at Joann) to the foam. Then you can hot glue the excess fabric around the edge of the foam piece (you will not see this part) and glue into the mask. Please scratch or sand the surface of the inside of the base as it will be very smooth and shiny and hard to get glue to stick to otherwise.
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MANNEQUINS TO PATTERN ON
It is extremely suggested to get a REAL mannequin pattern bust. Many folks try and use cheaper, undersized mannequin heads and many that don't even have a shoulder area. Consider most non mask mannequins are smaller than an actual human head and will yield way too tight patterns if not planned right. Below are suggested busts to pick up . They make making head patterns a breeze!
Ed or Alanna Head from Monstermakers are great mannequins to use for mask patterning. The craniums are 23 inches around brow area. Keep in mind their necks are little longer than normal as they are normally used for making latex mask designs (latex shrinks!) I have three of these armatures in foam and two in the new plastic version they offer (sadly, they only offer plastic now. The reason for this is so that (since they were designed for full head sculptures in their own Monster Clay, ) You can fill the bust with hot water to help melt the clay off after sculpting.
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Dreamvision Creations' "Manny" This one fits 24 inch heads and the neck is slightly shorter with wider shoulders! This is also made of foam so you can put pins in it if necessary! This was made by costume makers for costume makers. All in all, a great bust to get! I have not used this style yet but it looks very quality! So far it looks like this style has the most shoulder area on a bust.
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