Scarecrow Mask

2 old Broken Pitchforks my Dad had since the 70's gave me an idea.... It spawned into this. I'm sorry, this isn't a step by step instructable. I just hope it inspires someone. In fact, I don't even know if I'm done with it yet. HAHAHA!

In the way most of my projects develop. I had no idea how this was going to end up. My father recently had to go to a care home. I remember the broken pitchforks as a Child and simply couldn't throw them away. They looked like teeth to me and I had some free time at work to put them together. I used an oxy acetylene torch to heat and skew the tines so they would "fit" together. I used a scrap piece of metal rod to weld a mock up.

I took some scrap round steel rod, gently heated it while clamped in a vice to put a curve on it, as in the first picture. I then used a bench grinder to finish the ends of the rod to fit tightly between the "Jaws". I welded the two supports and cut the center mock up rod out. I then ground the mock up welds flush. At this point I still had no idea how to turn this into a costume.

O.K. so my idea to use the pitchfork "teeth" leaned towards a Burlap mask. I had a decent grasp on what I needed to do so I started "collecting" what I thought would work or help. I started doing some research at this point. There are many Youtube videos etc. on how to make a Burlap mask. I chose to buy some old heavy Burlap sacks from Princess Auto. I made a "form" by inflating a balloon to roughly the size of my head. I then wrapped it in duct tape and covered it in a heavy plastic bag. I then wrapped a piece of the burlap around the balloon and used a glue gun to hold it together. (dots of glue only). I bought some raw twine and yarn needles to sew the Burlap into the shape of my head.

The Twine is the same color as the Burlap I found. A large dollar store yarn needle worked great to sew the mask together. The dots of hot glue held the shape I wanted.

Picture 8 shows the finished sewn top of the Burlap mask. put it on, mark where your eyes, nose and mouth are. cut holes and sew loops around the perimeter of the opening. Pic. 7 shows the eyes and mouth nearly finished. I threaded bailing wire along the top and bottom of the mouthline. I then used black hemp thread to loop around the wire through the Burlap so I could "pose" the mouth.

I had an old weathered leather belt sitting around. I used an AWL. to pierce holes that I could use to stitch black hemp twine through. I wrapped the belt around what I figured would be the "Top" and sewed it together loosley.

Just some pics of the End? product. muahhahahaha.