Chinese Lion Dance Mask Tutorial

Or at least how to make one that satisfies a seven year old who is annoyed that you won't buy her an 800.00 Chinese Lion Dance Costume

We started by covering a large balloon with papier mache

 

We didn't have any newspaper so I tore up old phone book pages, which worked well but the paper was thinner so I needed more layers. I just used flour and water for the paste, mixed to the consistency of thick cream. We let it dry overnight, and then removed the balloon by popping it. I cut off the bottom of the mask to indicate a neckline and the upper jaw.

Next I tore some more phone book pages into tiny pieces and let them soak in warm water. After they sat in water for a few hours, I pureed them in my blender in small batches. I squeezed out the excess water and added a bit of the papier mache paste to hold it together better. Now I had a paper pulp that could be molded. I used this to build up the cheeks, nose and eyes. We also cut eye holes, but later realized that was a mistake and covered them up. On the traditional masks, the wearer looks out the mouth.

The ears are just pieces of the papier mache I cut from the bottom of the mask, pasted on with more strips of phone book. It needed to dry for a few days to be sure the paper pulp areas were completely dried.

From cardboard I cut a lower jaw and duct taped a pipe cleaner to it. I covered the lower jaw with several layers of papier mache and when it was dry, used the ends of the pipe cleaner to attach it to the head on each side of the mouth so it could move up and down.

Then we could finally paint it--Ivy was so impatient to start. She had been ready to paint it back at the first step of covering the balloon.

The masks we've seen were trimmed in fake white fur, but I didn't have anything like that so we cut tissue paper into narrow strips and fringed it. I'm not sure I like how it looks, if I can find white fake fur trim I might change it. We could have used a bigger balloon as well--I have to turn it sideways for it to fit on Ivy's head, then turn it forward. Ivy loves it though and told me it looked "store bought".

Comments

[Kathy]

Very clever idea for the lower jaw. I covered lots of balloons with newspaper strips when I was a kid to make all sorts of projects.