Saturday, January 24, 2009

Plaster and Paper Mache Dragon Mask

So even though this is large, completely pointless, and takes up space, it's probably one of my favorite things I've ever made. It's a dragon mask made of a motorcycle helmet, paper mache, and those plaster bandages. The teeth are made of clay, and they glow in the dark, as well as the eyes. The model is my beautiful roommate, Lauren (thanks buddy!)





9 comments:

  1. Let me tell you that this is NOT completely pointless! You just saved the day for me! I have to create a full dragon mask for my daughter's school play and I had no idea where to begin until I saw your project (awesome, by the way). I love the motorcycle helmet idea. Both of my daughters have helmets so I am thinking of maybe using one. Thanks so much for posting this!

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  2. Hooray, I'm glad it helped! If you have any questions about how to make one, feel free to ask. The helmet thing worked great for me, and makes sure it's comfortable. After that I just formed all the parts out of balled up newspaper, taped it all on, paper mached it all, and used plaster bandages to make it stronger. For the little details like teeth, polymer clay works great. Good luck making yours!

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  3. super work character zoo. amazing mask.
    i am doing some crazy stuff myself with this medium and if you have time to look please contact Spencer and or Paula on artbreakaway@hotmail.com we will gladly share some images with you.

    you have some very refreshing ideas and we would love to see what you get up to in future. Spencer

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  4. I just stumbled upon this via a google image search and now I really want to impulsively make a dragon helmet of my own. Problem is, I don't really have any prior experience with artistic anythings, so I'm not really sure where to start with such an undertaking. Do you have any tips for someone trying to recreate something similar to this excellent piece of draconic headgear?

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  5. Hello! Impulsively making anything is always awesome, especially if that something is a massive dragon helmet! I'll try to give you some tips, but feel free to ask again if you need more help:
    Ok, so first of all, I used a motorcycle helmet (about $1.50 at a thrift store) and it made this so much easier. From there, I basically rolled/balled up newspaper in the general shape I wanted the head (including the horns.) Masking tape works great for this. I'm by no means an expert at paper mache, but I pretty much just started paper macheing like crazy over the newspaper until it was the right shape. To reinforce it, I did about two layers of plaster bandages on top of that.
    Whew! Now that you've done that, I painted everything possible, like the eyes and horns, etc. The paper parts are posterboard from any craft store with P.H. Martin dyes and acrylic paint. Then, the teeth and little pinpricks in the eyes are glow and the dark clay (glued in with hot glue, which I don't recommend, as the teeth have been falling out!) So there you go! I hope that helps!

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  6. IM SOOOO HAPPY I CAME ACROSS UR BLOG OR POSTN MY DAUGHTER HAS A DRAGON PARADE @ SCHOOL AND HAVE 2 MAKE A DRAGON HEAD WE FELL N LUV WITH UR DRAGON HEAD AND WILL B CONSTRUCTN OURS TODAY HOPE IT COMES OUT LIKE YOURS THANX 4 POSTN DIS!

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  7. Amazing blog I felt very exciting reading your blog, very nice. Additional I read more clever topic here. Impressive. Thank you very much. Actually i found a webside very interesting costa rica homes for sale

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  8. Wow you're so great! Can i ask how you did that? I need to make one for our history class. Thanks :)

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  9. PELOTUDOSSSSSSSSSSS:p

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