Milk Jug Masks

african masks are traditionally used in ritiuals and cerimonies,

in the african culture.

we made our own out of milk jugs.

this is how mine turned out.

this was one of my most favorite projects.

it was so creative and fun and i honestly just dived into it.

i started by using the handle of the milk jug as the nose on my mask.

i then cut eyes out on the top. 

we covered the milk jug with scotch tape to give it a texture.

i crumpled some of my tape up and gave my mask

eyebrows and a beard.

i then used shoe polish and coated the top of the mask.

when that was dry, i used paint and painted designs on the face of my mask.

now here was the fun part.

i took a hole punch and punched holes on the top of the mask.

i used raffia an thread it through the holes to resemble hair.

the red curly raffia is my favorite.

#character.

through this project i learned that:

you can use random materials to create something really cool.

who would have thought that a milk jug, shoe polish, and raffia would create such a cool mask?

i sure didn't.

i learned that you can take non-conventional materials and make them into something unique.

why i did what i did:

i just did what my hands told me to do.

i saw a few examples of these milk jug masks and then i was inspired.

in class, we ran out of the tan-colored raffia, so i had to go to the store and buy my own.

while i was there, i saw that there was colored raffia.

and then it was all over.

i fell in love with it.

i love how it brought so much character into my piece

and made it unique from everyone else's.

this is a great way for:

~students to learn how to make something cool out of things they find around the house~

~learning about african masks and ceremonies~

~letting the students use their creativity to create something the could be excited about~

tutorial for this project:

http://artforchildrenisfun.blogspot.com/2014/11/milk-jug-masks-tutorial.html