Mulitiple Piece Masks...

[Maus]

this is my first post, so please forgive me if its a little short as I am unsure where to start and don't terribly care to have my foot levitate from the floor and shove its way into my mouth....

I am pretty new to the mask making area, and fairly new to the leather crafting wold in general, but I don't seem to let that stop me from getting ambitious ideas. I really would love to learn how to make multiple piece masks- does one use glues? If so what is the strongest ones, as I like to build my stuff to be actorproof/ to withstand me... which is about the equivalent of a atomic bomb. If one sews it how do you hide the stitches??? If there are any betterways I would love to know.

I have an idea to make a griffin mask/headress but I'd like to beable to use more than one piece to create the feathering around the eyes, and a more intense and protruding falcon sort of beak. So any help would be gratefully appreciated!!

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

The quick answer to your question is all of the above. Some projects are glued, some are sewn, some use both methods. A lot will depend on the leather that you are using, and the final shape.

There are several glues out there, each has it's advantages, and disadvantages. You may try a search of the forums for --- glue. Rubber cement, contact cement, Barge cement, it goes on and on.

Stitches can be hidden by doing a welt then flipping the item inside out, or stitching under a slit that is then folded back over the thread. There are a few way to do it, these are just a couple.

Do these masks get painted in any way? If so threads could be molded in,and painted over.

[leatheroo]

Hi Maus, here is a pic of a multi layered mask i made quite a while ago....i used contact glue..........the bigger front layers hide the glueing for the smaller pieces

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

Nice Man of the Woods Leatheroo.

Can you explain where these masks are used, or are they just decoration? I could see maybe Halloween, but outside of that not really sure.

[leatheroo]

Mostly for fancy dress parties...... this one just hangs on my wall

cheers

[Maus]

that is a very nice mask leatheroo! thank you for some of the advice, I tried some contact cement and have not had very good results with its strength. But maybe I haven't ruffed the leather up enough first.

I'm currently using 4/5 oz leather, primarily single shoulders as that is what is in my price range. But you've got me a little confused on the stitching, I can see some of the finer leathers being easily sewn and flipped inside out but with a stiffer leather you're planning on wet molding I don't see how that quite works. Most of the time I paint my masks, but I really would like to do one where I do a very light dye so to leave it as natural colour as possible-that way the bruising in the leather from some of the tooling will show through.

Sorry for the long response time, my husband and I just got orders to move to Italy so I've been runnin' around like a chicken with my head cut off.

[leatheroo]

The glue i use is called Kiwi grip....i find it SUPER strong, maybe what you call contact cement is a different product where you live. This stuff is spread on both layers and then when it is nearly dry, both pieces are pressed together.

Cant help with the stitching.... i have never stitched a mask

good luck