Stylized Cat Mask

This is a stylized resin cat done as a masquerade-style half mask, with a great amount of detail in every furry feature.

I didn't get too many photos of the build process for this mask, but really, it's not much different from how I usually sculpt, mold, and cast my resin masks.

Sculpting the cat mask in clay

Finished cat mask sculpture

Here's the sculpture in progress as well as a picture of the final sculpt once I'd prepared it for molding.

The mold for the cat mask

I did want to include a picture of the mold for this mask, since it's a little unusual. It's the same materials I normally use: Rebound 25 silicone as a brush on for the interior mold, and FreeForm Air for the rigid exterior mother mold. (You can see the process in more detail on my skull mask.) The only difference with this one is that the mother mold is done in three pieces rather than two.

When making a rigid mold, you have to take into account undercuts - in other words, it can't have anyplace it might become stuck and you can't take it apart. In this case, the ears presented an issue... but the solution was easy enough. I simply made a third piece to the exterior mold (a "flip-top lid", as it were) and it works great!

The final pieces are cast using Smooth-Cast 65D, a type of impact-resistant urethane resin. I also used the same design to make some instant-downloadable printable cat masks if you need a quick costume or something for kid's parties!


Categories: Costuming, Currently Available For Sale, Masks and Props
Tags: ball, cast, cat, fancy dress, feline, Halloween, kitty, mask, party, ren faire, renaissance festival, resin, stylized, unpainted
Live Date: 1/27/2016 | Last Modified: 1/26/2016