How to... make your own mask!
Masks are brilliant!
When you wear a mask you can become almost anything - an animal, a bird, a monster, a robot! Whatever you can imagine.Wearing a mask means that you have to be extra big and extra expressive with the rest of your body. When you no longer have most of your face to rely on - you have to let you body show how you're feeling. Which is exactly what we do in Hoglets upcoming class - The Tortoise and The Hare.But first things first - you need to make a mask. And luckily, it's really easy to do!You will need:[ssticklist]
- A paper plate.
- Coloured pencils, pens or crayons.
- Old magazines, newspapers - anything with nice colours or patterns.
- Sticky tape or glue.
- A stick or a straw.
- Your imagination.
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Step 1. Start with a paper plate.
You want a gap for your mouth on your mask. Hold the plate in front of your face and work out where your mouth will be. Tear or cut your plate here (getting an adult to help you if you need to use scissors).
Step 2. Add any bits.
This is where things get fun. Using the bits of the plate you tore off, you can add ears or horns or anything you like to your mask to give it a different shape. Also play about with tearing out chunks from the edge around the head if you want to make it less circular.
Step 3. The eyes.
You ideally want to be able to see whilst wearing your mask. Again - hold your plate up to your face and work out where your eyes will be - then either push a pencil through the plate and tear out an eye hole - or get an adult to cut some out with scissors.
Step 4. Let's get creative!
Now the really fun stuff - decorate your mask! One great idea is to use old magazines or papers (make sure the owner has finished reading them first), tear out nice colours or patterns and stick them to your mask.We used old play posters from our sister company Hedgepig Theatre - but you can use anything you like.You can also use coloured pens or crayons, stickers, glitter, pasta - anything you like - to add to the design.
Step 5. The stick.
When you're happy with your mask - it's time to add a stick to it - otherwise how will you hold it to your face!Ta da! Here are a couple we made for our Mask classes - The Tortoise and The Hare.
We'd love to see the masks you all make - get an adult to send us a picture to gemma@hoglets.org.uk and we'll post the best masks up here.