Paper Clay Mayan Mask

This project was an assignment in my course on creative design. This project gives a guide on how to make a traditional tribal mask of the Mayan civilization, along with some advice based on my own experience. This assignment of mine also has the underlying motive of exploring, understanding and creating decorative masks for mainly interior design. Decorative masks are very lucrative add-ons to any interior. These traditional masks add that necessary color and culture and thereby enhance the beauty of the room. They add a sort of wow element and can be used as a means to convey your appreciation and understanding of art to your guests, giving off a good impression. So let us see how to make a Mayan mask using paper clay.

In this project, I make a clay mask inspired by the images, though my mask is most inspired by the orange one.

The image shows the supplies necessary to make the mask itself. Though not present in the image, I also use a primer to make the mask more uniform and give it a more workable texture to add color and details. I also apply a varnish as I used watercolors on the mask. To obtain the "mould", just take some newspaper, crumple it and tape it together to form your desired shape. As you can see, I went with the shape of the first mask.

Before making the mask, I first make a rough sketch of my vision for the mask. It is mainly a blueprint to follow. AS you can see, it has drawn inspiration from both of the reference images. Making a sketch helps in visualizing and making the goal clearer.

So, to begin making the mask, we must first spread out the clay in an even layer. This is easier said than done, however. One advice that I can give is first to make the clay into a sort of disk and then pushing the edge further using either your fingers or your wrist. Before you place the clay layer on the mould, one useful tip is to place a gauze cloth on top of the mould. This is so that the inside of the mask has a uniform layer and does not get any markings from the newspaper. Once that's done, take the clay layer and place it slowly on the mould. Cut off any excess and add shape to the mask by using clay modelling tools.

With the clay layer in place, it's time to start working on adding more details so that it actually looks like a mask. To carve out the eyes and mouth of the mask, just use clay tools or alternatively a cutter and remove the clay from that portion. Use a clay tool with a curved edge, moistened with some water, to smoothen the edges of the crevices so made. To add more clay onto the existing layer, such as adding the nose or the headdress, I employ a technique known as scoring. In this technique, just make some grooves with a sharp clay modelling tool, add a bit of paste made by mixing paper clay and water. Add grooves to both the part to attach and the clay layer. Hence, just model the nose, score it and attach it. Similarly, with the headdress. The image shows how your mask might look after following the steps so far. Also, after this step is done, you might notice that there are cracks in your mask. To remedy this, just take a clay tool with a curved edge, moisten it, and smoothen the whole mask. Basically, just try to even the clay over the crevice by dragging the surrounding clay with the tool.

After making the shape of the clay mask, leave it for 2 - 3 days so that the paper clay completely dries. The next step is to add a primer of our mask to make it more workable with watercolors. The primer can be applied in just layers with no sort of governing pattern, using a suitable brush. After adding the primer, wait for it to completely dry up before beginning the painting. It should take about 10 minutes as primer dries up relatively quickly.

Once the primer has set, it is time for the most exciting step: The painting phase! This phase adds life and ethos to the mask which currently looks sort of cold and lifeless. So as is evident by the image, I am following the color scheme of the second mask, though with a slightly different color palette, as my watercolor palette was kind of limited and mixing watercolors is still a mystery to me. Try to color all the difficult places as well such as between the tooth and headdress and on the walls of the eye sockets. Before coloring any patterns on your mask, is it considered good practice to mark the design using a pencil as it works pretty well on primered paper clay. Another added bonus is that an eraser also works on it. After you make the pattern, color the major color slowly around the pattern. Do not worry if a little color enters the pattern. You can fix it when you are finishing the mask with a black marker pen, as I have done in my mask. Adding the extra marker pen to finish all the teeth and the headdress makes the whole mask pop.

Now that we have our mask made, it's time to find a good place to display it! For my project, I just displayed it on a stand made by sticking piece of kg carboard together on a base to make a sort of L-shape where I can place my mask, so that it lies inclined. One could even consider placing this on shelves or tables in a room, or even hanging it by making a hole somewhere on the mask. And that is it, we have made a tribal mayan decorative mask.