leather moulding face mask

[troy]

Not sure if this is the right section for this but am planning to mould 7oz leather onto a polystyrene head in part of making a sort of wolverine style helmet (from the comic's not films) - sounds nuts I know but wondered who here has experiance with this sort of thing. I will be after creating some facial expressions but as long as I can get the basic outline of the face i.e. eyes, nose, mouth - then I'll be happy. The demand is for a sort of warrior type expression (your guess is as good as mine at the moment) but any helpful tips, like can I carve/stamp after or before moulding the leather? will be helpful.

cheers for any help

Paul

[KcKenny]

Not sure if this is the right section for this but am planning to mould 7oz leather onto a polystyrene head in part of making a sort of wolverine style helmet (from the comic's not films) - sounds nuts I know but wondered who here has experiance with this sort of thing. I will be after creating some facial expressions but as long as I can get the basic outline of the face i.e. eyes, nose, mouth - then I'll be happy. The demand is for a sort of warrior type expression (your guess is as good as mine at the moment) but any helpful tips, like can I carve/stamp after or before moulding the leather? will be helpful.

cheers for any help

Paul

Have a look at Leatheroo's posts, she's a fantastic mask maker

[TomBanwell]

One way to do this (not the only way) is to add Bondo or epoxy putty to your polystyrene head, and sculpt it just how you want the mask. Then case your leather and press it into and around the head. That way you control all those details. I'm pretty sure Leatheroo would just form it free hand though.

[leatheroo]

thanks mckenny!!

Here is a post on how i make my masks...hope it helps

http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=2380

I am not sure, but i think 7oz leather is quite thick...it is much easier to work with thin leather, i use 2mm...it will harden and the leather is really very strong

Edited July 15, 2009 by leatheroo

[kevinhopkins]

Hi... the heavier leather will be more difficult to work with, but there is one thing that you want to keep in mind when making a mask. There aren't any hard and fast rules. Many of the mask makers have their tricks and tips for sure, but if you keep at it, you'll find that you develop a great many of your own. So don't be afraid to experiment! But for what it's worth, I'd start with a thinner leather, and keep in mind that your second mask has a pretty good chance of being nicer than your first!

Kevin

[Newbee]

Can leather be carved/stamped before or after molding?

[Eldorado]

Can leather be carved/stamped before or after molding?

Sort of... and it depends on how you mould it.

If you use a boiling or near boiling method, in my experience the answer is no. You can use your swivel knife to make cuts that will survive the process, but stamping and tooling for me just gets washed away.

If you just wet mould, you will experience loss of definition, but some of the tooling/stamping can remain. However, I've not been as happy with that as I'd wish. The definition loss makes it all look a bit blurred.

Also commenting on the polystyrene approach, I think it will work better if you get a harder surface. You'll need to press against the features and the poly might just squish under the pressure. I used a full halloween facemask, put tape over the eyes and nose holes and filled it with liquid marble from Michaels. When it set, I had a face-shaped piece of stone. Even with this, though I had to add some eyebrow ridges (with several passes of hot glue) and some nose definition. I suspect the poly head suffers from the same understated-ness in the human nose and forehead that my facemask did.

Also, I would agree that 2-3oz would be better, though heavier can work ok with the boiling method. For 25 seconds after boiling, the leather is very similar to pie dough and will do most of what you want. After that you can't do much with it. But 25 seconds is easily enough to take it out of the pot and press it on to your form. Not alot of time to do the cool shaping that Leatheroo does, though.

Hope this helps.

[hivemind]

Thinner leathers mold better, 'tis true, but you can still make stuff from 12-14oz leather. I do it all the time for my unit's skull masks.

[Eirewolf]

I know this is an old topic, but I thought I'd add a resource for future reference in case others come looking. This year I learned (and am still learning) how to make masks out of 7 to 8-oz. leather (and thinner leather too). My main source of information, at least to start, was this tutorial video by Andrea Masse-Tognetti of Merimask Designs: http://youtu.be/obE333UphPg It was immensely helpful for me, and allowed me to realize that I could do this. So I jumped in with both feet and haven't looked back since!

Anyway, I hope this is useful for someone.