Egyptian Mask Making

As the title says, this post is all about Egyptian Mask Making, or more accurately, how to be the most clinically insane art teacher in your district.  

6th grade covers Egypt as part of their Social Studies unit every year so when asked if I could do something to support it, this was my solution - mass insanity. Be forewarned, this is not a project you can do with just ANY class.  It has to be your absolutely best behaved class ever.  Because the kids will be sculpting right on top of their friend's faces they must also be extremely careful or people wind up with thumbs in eyes or fingers up noses.  This is not a project I do every year.  It is something I do with kids I absolutely know I can trust, not just with the materials but with each other.

Day 1:  Break the kids up into groups.  Have them pick a member to be the first model for the mask.  Then the group covers the table in newspaper (not like that stops them from making a mess anyway but I like to dream), lies the model down, the model covers their face in Vaseline and then plastic wrap (leaving a nose hole obviously).  The rest of the group members get water cups and start cutting plaster wrap into strips.  Dip, squeeze out the water, and cover the face (leaving the gap in the nose).  Let dry about ten to fifteen minutes, pop off the mask, fill the gap and then put it on the counter to dry.  We use post-its to keep track of which face is which.  A group member will write that person's name down on a post-it and then stick it to the counter in front of the mask.  

The plastic wrap helps the mask pop right off when finished.
The Vaseline keeps the plaster from sticking to the skin.

This is definitely a time effort.
The hardest part is keeping the model from moving.

Day 2 and beyond:  Rinse and repeat day one, just with a different group member as the model.
Repeat as necessary until everyone in the group has a mask to work with.  This project takes TONS of time, so don't start it if you don't want to spend an entire marking period on this.  It is very labor intensive...and messy...Did I mention the messy?

I've found that the body heat of the model will actually help the plaster set faster.
Team members can feel for the plaster warming up.  It will be firm enough to take off once
all sides of the mask are warm.

I have to admit, this must look like morticians in training to an outsider.

Checking for heat.

Poor kid, the rest of her group seems to have abandoned her.

Once everyone in the group has a mask the second phase of messiness begins.  I steal...er...borrow...cardboard boxes from the school's kitchen and cut the panels apart.  The kids then each get a cardboard panel.  The kids trace their masks onto the center of the panel.  Then they draw the traditional Egyptian headdress shape around it.  After that is a whole class of 6th graders trying to cut cardboard.  All the extra cardboard is trimmed off to leave only the headdress.  

They then use the plaster to adhere their mask to the cardboard.  Since the cardboard isn't necessarily strong and can flop or fold I usually have them plaster right to the edges of the headdress.  We don't bother plastering the back. After all no one's going to see it when the masks are displayed, right?

Then comes the weeks of painting with metallic temperas and black tempera to get the masks to look properly Egyptian!  I'm honestly not sure if I have pictures of the finished product.  I'll have to dig through my archives and see.  It's been a while since I last taught this; partly because I haven't had students I thought could handle it (all the ones in the photos are seniors in high school now) and partly because of budgetary concerns.  This project uses a classpack and a half of plaster wrap and about 4 bottles of metallic gold paint!  If I do find any finished products I'll post them!