Clay Modelling Tribal Mask

Anyone can make anything if he is given the right materials and he understands how it works.

Here I, Adithyaa, have used Air Drying Clay to make a mask which has been inspired from various tribal and modern sources being given its own flavour in the end.

These kinds of masks have been made by many civilisations across the world over the years and is an integral part of their art culture and history

1-Air Dried Clay

2-Newspaper

3-Poster Paint

4-Wet Cloth

5-Cutting tools such as a plastic/wooden Knife

6-Writing Pad or any similar Flat surface

Take the newspaper you have to create a crumpled shape to form a mould for the mask we are going to make.

If the mask has an irregular shape use multiple papers to create the appropriate shapes and stick them together to form a skeletal shape of the mask.

Now get enough amounts of clay and paste it on top of this mould

Depending on the clay you have it may dry up at various speeds.

In order to prevent the clay from drying, use a wet cloth (the cloth shouldn't contain water droplets on it) and place it on the places in which the clay has been placed and not being worked upon

Once the basic form is formed use the sharp plastic knife to make carvings for the eyes and mouth.
If needed add extra clay at parts needed like in the eye-brows,nose and mouth for the lips and teeth.

For my desired shape, I needed to make extra protrusions along the sides and extra cat-like ears and add details to these parts. Use your hand to blend these individual parts and make a cohesive structure and finetune the details using the knife and your hands

The air-drying clay generally takes around a day to completely dry off.

Place the clay along with the paper mould in a place where it could cool off slowly and dry up.

Avoid storing it under the fan or near a place where winds could blow quickly cause this might lead to uneven cooling which would end up in cracks/breaking.

PS: This clay model actually broke up after cooling .In case that happens ,use paper and more clay and reinforce it from the back and use some fevicol and paper to reinforce the mask. Allow this also to cool and it would help in the reinforcements to become strong thus helping you in holding the mask together

Apply a coating of emulsion paint or wall paint(preferably white) to give a smooth surface to the whole mask along with it acting as an adhesive holding the mask together.

Now take any form of paint you have and apply the colour scheme you wish to achieve on the mask and colour the whole mask.

Now use markers to get the minute details visible on the mask and give it the finishing touchse

And there you go, you have a fully ready mask which could be used as a showcase piece.