[Haunt On A Dime]

So I FINALLY figured out and executed a relatively cheap and easy (though slightly smelly) way to create my witches.




What I was running into was that the really cool witch masks cost close to $30+ each, and I am not one to have lame looking props (which is counter intuitive to not spending a lot of $$).

What I figured out, all in all, cost me approximately $4 per head (with material left over to make others). This can be done with most any face, but be careful as the process could ruin your original base mask.

I started with a $10 metallic looking witch mask from Spirit Halloween. It is made of hard plastic, so closing up the mouth, eyes and nose holes wasn't too hard. I got a tube of 100% silicone from Home Depot for $4 (it has to be 100% silicone, not acrylic silicone mix or the curring process is screwy).




I mixed some blue dawn dish soap in water (1/4 cup of soap to 6 cups of water) and then I emptied the entire silicone tube into the water - this is the smelly part, I'd suggest a well ventilated area....I was in my kitchen -_-



Kneed the silicone under the water until is becomes a little firm. Then quickly spread it generously upon your mask. {I would highly suggest two tubes of silicone, as you can see mine didn't cover the chin area which I had to mold with tin foil for castings}



Allow the silicone to cure in a well ventilated area. Mine smelled horribly strong of vinegar as it cured...still kind of does three days later.

Once cured, remove mask from silicone.

I also purchased a can of expanding insulating foam from Home Depot for around $3. It says it is only one time use, but if you clean the tube and can nozzle well enough, you can use it many times.

Fill the crevices of the silicone mold with the foam, and remember it is going to expand so only fill it 1/3-1/2 full.

Now don't touch it for many many hours or you could puncture the cured outer shell which will lead to the uncured inner section to expand out more.

Once it is fully cured, remove easily from silicone mold and use any excess foam to carve details to hot glue on, or exacto excess features off to make each face distinct.



[COLOR="#00FF8C00"]Paint to your preference[/COLOR]. (The eyes and hair came from Dollar Tree)

 

[Haunt On A Dime]

Not sure why the photos are sideways, They are vertical in my computer.

 

[DeadED]

Even worse. Now your pictures aren't showing up.

 

[Ellie13]

Sounds like an interesting process. The attachments did not work. I sure would like to see them. (c:

 

[Haunt On A Dime]

The images should now be working.

 

[Madame Leota]

Thanks for this post! It seems relatively easy and they came out great!
Pinning this for the future, as my witch heads are showing some serious wear and tear.

 

[divinedragon7]

A great idea, thank you.

 

[Nebulosity]

If I'm following the post correctly, the silicon is used to create a mold for casting the greatstuff, right? Could the mask itself be used as the mold if it has sufficient detail on the inside? In the meantime this looks like an inexpensive (if smelly ) way to make a mold for a lot of stuff.

 

[TRENTWOOD TERROR]

Thanks. Looks great

 

[Haunt On A Dime]

If I'm following the post correctly, the silicon is used to create a mold for casting the greatstuff, right? Could the mask itself be used as the mold if it has sufficient detail on the inside? In the meantime this looks like an inexpensive (if smelly ) way to make a mold for a lot of stuff.

Hey Nebulosity, good question.

One could technically use the inside of a mask to get a very rough shape of the mask, but the silicone makes it so the mold picks up all the fine details that are on the outside of the mask but are not on the inside.

If you look inside any mask you have and compare it to the outside, you will see that the outside holds a lot more detail. You can think of this due to the outside of the mask is the first latex layer the mask maker put down, the layer that got into all the cracks of the original mold, and the inside layer is the last layer-a smother, less defined layer.

If you do decide to try using the inside of a mask, I'd suggest seeing if your foam has any bad results when dried on the mask material (wether it be plastic or latex etc.) to make sure that it doesn't overly bond to it. It slides easily away from the silicone in the above tutorial but there are materials which it bonds to quite strongly and may ruin the original mask and mold trying to be made.

 

[Ghost Ninja]

Nice tut, I've been looking into using silicone for a few things lately. And this tut helps me a bit. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Evil Elf]

Thanks for this awesomely simple tutorial. In fact, a few days ago I got a metallic mask from Big Lots that is very similar to your witch and I wanted to mold it. Perfect timing!