Ancient Egypt
Mummy Mask
Cut a hole in a piece of poster board the size of your face. Be sure it is large enough for your forehead and chin to come through, but not your ears.
Next put a coating of petroleum jelly over your face. Lay flat. Next put a dampened paper towel over your face. Cut small holes for your nose.
Next cut strips of gauze. Dip the gauze in Plaster of Paris. Lay the coated strips over your face leaving an opening for your nose. Stay very still for 15 minutes while the plaster sets.
After carefully lifting the mask off your face. Cut the poster board in the shape of a mask. Then cover the mask with a thin layer of plaster. Fill in the nose holes. We added a row of masking tape and another layer of plaster to have a smooth transition between the plaster face and the rest of the board.
Spread a thin layer of plaster over the entire front of the mask.
Paint your mask.
The Finished Project
An Easier Method
With 47 students making masks this year, we needed to make the project easier. We used plain white masks for the base instead of the plaster of Paris. In place of painting the stripes, students used bright colors of electrician's tape and Sharpie markers to decorate the masks.
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