How to Make a Hawaiian Tribal Mask
- 1). Draw a large shield shape onto the stiff cardboard. This should be the size you want the face of the mask to be. Spray this all over with the white primer, front and back. This will help the papier-mache adhere to the mask and make it look neater. Measure where your eyes will be on the mask and make a note of this position. Attach the strip of elastic material with the staple gun just below the eyes to hold the mask onto your head.
- 2). Draw the shape of the eyes where the eye marks are. Hawaiian masks had large eyes, often with straight brows and large, curved lower eyelids, making the eyes look like "D" shapes on their sides. Mark where the mouth will be and cut out a long thin horizontal shape to represent the opening in the mask between the teeth. Hawaiian masks had very large mouths but also very large teeth, filling most of the mouth area.
- 3). Use the craft knife to cut shapes out of the Styrofoam to represent the nose and lips of the mask. Hawaiian masks had noses that were short --- only about as tall as the distance between the lower and upper eyelids --- but wide and flat. Cut out a wide, flat triangle and use the craft glue to glue it onto the face between the eyes. Measure around the mouth area and cut out a ring of Styrofoam --- about 1/4 inch wide --- to go around the mouth. Don't worry about any sharp edges, as they will be smoothed by the papier-mache.
- 4). Mix one part of PVA glue with three parts of water. Tear the white paper up into strips and start laying it on the mask. Overlap the strips onto the back but leave most of the back of the mask uncovered. Use layers of the paper and glue to smooth out the edges of the Styrofoam shapes and the rough cardboard edges.
- 5). Use the craft knife and Popsicle stick to carve out patterns on the forehead of the mask and around the edge of the mask itself, as well as the shapes of the teeth between the lips and the aperture of the mouth. Do this while the papier-mache is still wet. Hawaiian masks often had patterns consisting of little squares carved side by side above their eyes on the fringes of their face.
Source...