• Plan ahead.

• Wear washable clothes, since you will get drips of plaster on your clothes.
• Wear your hair back if possible.
• You will need to work with a partner.
• One partner gets plastered by the other.
• Then the second partner gets plastered whil the first partner's cast is drying.
• Plan ahead to identify your mask with your name.
• Use permanent marker to write your name on a strip of paper or masking tape.
• Save this for the casting step below.

• Use plastic wrap to protect your hairline.

• Wrap it from your forehead, around your ears, to the back of your neck.
• Tie it tightly with help.
• Check for stray hairs around your ears, and tuck them in.

• Use vaseline (eeuw!  yes.) to protect your face from sticking to the plaster when it dries.

• Coat your face all the way to your ears and jaws.
• If you plan to cast your mouth closed, put vaseline on your lips.
• Remember your eyebows, and nose. It might feel sticky, but nothing sticks like dried plaster, and it hurts to feel every hair being pulled out !!!

• Make the plaster cast with help from a partner.  You will cast each other's faces.

• Place the name tape across your partner's forehead, name side in, so you can read it inside the mask later.  Get it?
• Take a strip of plaster gauze and dip it into water to moisten the plaster.
• Run your fingers down the strip and let excess water drip back into the bowl, not on your partner's lap.
• Use two hands to lay the strip on your partner's face.
• Take care to support the bridge of the nose and the upper lip.
• Continue until you have 2 or 3 layers evenly laid on the face.
• Presto!  Now the plaster must set.  This takes 10 minutes in sunny weather, longer in rain.

• Now the plastered partner will make a cast of the second partner's face.

• By the time the second face is cast, the first face may be dry enough to remove.
• This is the moment of truth, when you find out if you skipped anyplace with the vaseline.
• Wash your face and admire your image.

Phase Two:  Painting the Mask  

• Plan.

• Prepare.

• Protect your desk with newspaper.
• If the mask has any irregular edges, you can trim them with scissors or file.

• Paint.

• Use acrylic paint, which is fast drying and permanent.
• Favorite African colors are black, brown, red, yellow, with other colors as accent.
• To reduce smearing, use a different brush for each color.
• Share a palette and set of brushes.
  

Phase Three:  Decorating the Mask  

• Decorate and accessorize your mask.

• Use materials such as feathers, shells, beads, and raffia.
• Attach by gluing with hot glue.
• You can also poke holes and tie decorations on.
  
• Please use caution with hot glue guns.
  
 
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