Werewolf Mask

I've been wanting to make on of these since I first saw them at goldenwolfen.com. Then hallowe'en rolled around and Geoff and I got a letter from friends inviting us to their hallowe'en party, what a better time to make the masks! So we did and it was really fun and well worth the time and money put into it. We're going to try and make more for this year too, so hopefully I'll have something more to add to this site! Each mask cost around $100 to make, and we have lots of supplies left over as well.
(Click on the thumbnails to see the full images!)


We started off with taking pieces of cardboard and fitting them over our heads and high-temperature glue gunning them together. When that was done we took styrofoam cylinders and cut those in half (lengthwise!), glued then to the cardboard 'skulls', and sculpted them into muzzles with an exacto knife. I used the extra bits I cut off for cheek & brow structure.


Geoff of course had to take it a step further and made a full moving jaw! He used a piece of cardboard as a hinge, then put a screw and nut through holes at either end, then added elastics to keep it tight and from flapping around.


Then we covered the cardboard 'skulls' with celluclay (pre-made paper mache more of a paper pulp that you just add water to, very cool stuff!) and sculpted the shapes we wanted.


And started making the teeth out of white translucent sculpey. We found that because Geoff's jaw moved, that unfortunately the night we wore the masks a few of his teeth broke off. My jaw didn't move so I didn't have the same problem he did. Also we found that no matter how you think you'll remember what tooth went where or how you lay them on the baking sheet, that it would be best to number the teeth. They change a bit when you bake them and you might have to use an exacto knife to cut them in places so they fit if your mask has a set jaw like mine.


While the sculpey teeth were baking, we painted the masks. After the paint was dry, we glued in the teeth and then painted a high gloss varnish on the teeth and nose.


Then we glued fun-fur around the front and back of the masks, bought some paws form the store & added more of the same fur to those, and grabbed an old pair of shoes and made claws out of foam and glued more fur to the shoes! We also we ordered taxidermy eyes from Van Dyke's Taxidermy but unfortunately they didn't arrive in time for the party!
Here are some pictures I took, when the eyes arrived, of my finished mask.


The party was a success, we even won the prize for best costumes! Thanks again Pat & Naomi!

I got the idea & how-to from goldenwolfen.com if you're interested in making your own!