Gorilla Tape Gorilla Mask

I've always wanted a gorilla mask to scare the trick-or-treaters on Halloween. So this year I decided to make one. And it only seemed natural to make a gorilla mask using Gorilla Tape.

This was a great project to put to use an old helmet and some black fake fur I had picked up at thrift store a while ago. Along with Gorilla Tape, I also used newspaper, cardboard, masking tape, glue, and a few little things I had lying around.

I was going for a dorky, somewhat goofy gorilla look. I was happy with how it turned out.

I found this strange glow-in-the-dark helmet at a thrift store for $2. I had been looking for something to do with it for quite a while.

It made a perfect base to build my gorilla mask on.

A pair of old sunglasses were attached to the helmet with strips of masking tape to ensure perfect eye-hole placement.

Cardboard was added underneath along with some wire to create an open space for my nose.

Lots of masking tape was added all around the glasses to secure them in place, then the side ear pieces of the glasses were removed.

Pieces of cardboard were glued and taped underneath the eye holes to create an understructure onto which I could build up the gorilla face.

Small, squished wads of newspaper were added with masking tape to build up different parts of the face.

I didn't spend too much time worrying about details at this point--I just wanted to get some mass onto the face that I could work with and modify.

Once a rough sculpture was in place, I could focus on creating details by adding or taking away as needed.

I added tape around the eye holes to make them smaller and worked on the brow and nose areas.

The wrinkles above the nose are thin rolls of wadded newspaper wrapped in tape, then taped in place.

Here's a detail of a sculpted chunk of newspaper and tape ready to became part of the gorilla's chin.

After many modifications and adjustments I was happy with what I had.

In order to neatly cover the face with Gorilla Tape, I laid out strips of tape onto my cutting mat and sliced them into small cross-ways strips.

Narrow strips (about 1/4" or so) were used for the more difficult areas like the eyes, nose, and mouth.

All of theses pieces were hot glued in place.

The teeth are pieces of dowel that I carved with a utility knife and painted white.

The tongue is made from some scrap fleece. I sewed two rectangles together, curving one end for the rounded tip of the tongue, and left the other end open. This was turned right-side-out, and a line of stitches was added down the middle.

The black backing in the mouth is also just a bit of scrap material.

The fake fur I used to create a hood over the helmet was originally the lining out of an old hunting rifle bag that I bought at a thrift store for $2. That's a good deal for nice fake fur.

I drew and cut out where I thought a good place would be for the gorilla's face to come through the fur.

I draped the fur over the helmet, fitting the gorilla face in the hole I had cut out. I trimmed away more of the opening as needed, and glued the edges in place around the gorilla's face, working from top to bottom.

The excess fur was pulled back and glued neatly in place, and all the extra was trimmed off.