MAKING MASKS: Clay as a beginner's material?

1. • kaitokiddo1412 1 month, 3 weeks ago

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   • After asking the sales at an art supplies store, I got pretty much bupkis on how to start. I ended up getting some air dry clay. I plan to glue together styrofoam as a base and make the features with the clay. Then doing a vacuum form. Does anyone have any constructive suggestions or comments about this?

2. • willshirley 1 month, 3 weeks ago

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   • You might get cracks from the shrinking of the clay since the styrofoam won't shrink with it. You could do nicely with buying regular stoneware clay and building it on a piece of plywood. I make masks all the time with stoneware and most of them would work for developing a vacuum form or latex mold. To avoid shrinkage you can add grog to the clay, it acts like bricks in a wall with the clay as mortar and reduces shrinkage. Likewise you can add cut nylon rope, 1/2 inch cuts, broken up to form fuzz and kneaded into the clay. The strands of nylon act like rebar in concrete and prevent the cracks from expanding. I use that for extended areas of clay sculpture. I never use an armature, just fuzz. Another nice thing about using real clay is when done you break it up with a hammer and toss it into a bucket of water and use it again!

3. • Snooks 1 month ago

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   • Since I needed several of the same basic mask, I sculpted the original from polymer clay, then made a silicone mold with a mother mold to have a solid mold. Then I rolled out the paper clay to about 1/4 thick depending on the size of the mask. Then I draped the clay into the mold like you would for pie dough, Gently press into the details (eyes, nose, mouth etc). Trim around the top with a knice, again like pie dough. Let the papet clay stiffen well. I remove it from the mold before completely dry so I can cut out the eyes.

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