Davy Jones Mask With Moving Tentacles

Materials:

*liquid latex

*acrylic paint (red, black, yellow, green)

*styrofoam mannequin head

*air dry clay

*string

*straws

*stuffing

*hot glue

*circle cereal

*foam board/cardboard

*Using air dry clay on a styrofoam head, start creating a thin layer of clay

*Add the basic features and shapes on the mannequin head

*The nose is a lot wider and quite flat overall, and the brows are more prominent

*Using pieces of clay add the bases of the tentacles

*Also add a few small tentacles that won't extend past the chin

*Using a paint brush add liquid latex

*Let dry between layers

*I painted 10 layers of the colourless liquid latex followed by 2 more layers of coloured liquid latex

*Wash brush immediately in warm/hot water as it tends to stick to the brush quite quickly

*If the latex does get stuck in your paint brush you can remove it by combing it out with a toothpick, though this is tedious.

*Shape the tentacles from aluminum foil

*I made a total of 18 tentacles

*Bend the foil to give them additional shape with curves at the bottom

*Cover each tentacle with air dry clay

*Press in the cereal to create the suction cups

*These do fall off if the clay is not thick enough

*Paint each tentacle with liquid latex

*I did 4 layers of colourless latex and then 2 layers of coloured latex

*Do not let them touch anything as they are very sticky with the liquid latex on them, even if they are dry.

*Using 3 separate dishes, mix paint with the liquid latex in a 50/50 ratio.

*Keeping the colours separate allows you to blend and add colour variety throughout the mask

*Paint the mask with 2 layers of the latex/paint mixtures

*The first layer doesn't have to be detailed

*Paint the tentacles with 2 layers of the latex/paint mixture

*The mask is very sticky, so covering it in corn starch makes it soft.

*Make sure to cover every crevice otherwise it'll stick to itself and it may be hard to unstick.

*Gently remove the mask from the foam head by working your fingers along the edges and pulling off the clay

*The clay can then be more easily removed from the mask

*Make sure the tentacles were covered with corn starch as well

*Working the dry material back about 1cm the cheerios and were able to be pulled off until the whole tentacle was free

*Take your time and be cautious as the latex can easily rip.

*Draw out the size and shape of the eyes that you want and cut out gently

*Cut the mouth flap along the lines keeping it still attached to the rest of the mask. This is very important as otherwise there are no breathing holes in this mask.

*Add some stuffing to the eyebrows and nose area to make them more prominent as the mask loses some of the shape after removal from the mannequin head.

*If needed, create a nose piece to make sure the nose maintains the shape that is wanted

*This was cut out from some foam board in the desired shape with a hole for my nose

*Using sharp scissors cut the tentacle bases so the rest of the tentacles can be placed

*Use a chopstick to push some stuffing down to the end of the tentacle

*Use small pieces at a time to ensure the tentacle doesn't rip

*If you want a couple of your tentacles to move glue some string to the bottom of the inside of the tentacle. You may want to glue a small piece of cardboard as well

For the Moving Tentacles:

*Gently flip the tentacles right-side-out

*Add a small amount of stuffing to the tip of the tentacle (this will be how much the tentacle will move)

*Thread the straw through the string on the tentacles that you want to move and slide the straw into the tentacle

*Add stuffing around the straw

*This makes it so the string can move freely without friction from the stuffing

-->All remaining non-moving tentacles can just be filled with stuffing

*Set out the tentacles so you know where you want each tentacle to go

*This is particularly important with the location of the moving tentacles as you don't want only the left or right 1/2 of your mask to have moving parts

*Thread the string from the moving tentacles through the tentacle base first

*Also each tentacle is individually constructed so some are longer than others

*Place them so the longer ones tend to be towards the front and they get slightly shorter towards the back of the head

*Gently tuck the tentacles into each chosen base

*Add some hot glue between the tentacle and the base

*Make sure to do this for all of the tentacles on all sides.

*Afterwards take some of the coloured liquid latex to blend the 2 parts together so there is no visible edge

*Make sure to keep tentacles apart until dry and more corn starch has been applied

*Davy Jones has a little blob like part at the back of his head

*Add some stuffing to a balloon, and blow up to the desired size

*Tie the balloon and paint with the latex/paint mixture

*Hang to dry and add corn starch afterwards

*Add some black make up to your eyes

*Place on nose piece

*Put mask on, be careful not to tear

*If tears do happen, you can glue back together with hot glue and cover up with the latex/paint mixture

*Make sure strings aren't tangled and can be individually controlled with your hands

*With the hands at the base of the mask you can gently pull on the strings to control the tentacles

*Step back and enjoy your handiwork!