My bunny mask…for no other reason than I just wanted to make one.
Anyhow, perusing Pinterest I spotted a leather rabbit mask made by an artist I follow on Etsy and suddenly I needed one. Only I don’t know how to work with leather like that and while I’m sure I could figure it out, I don’t know that I need one more craft. Gasp! You can check out Banwell’s awesome bunny mask on this Etsy featured shop post.
Anyhow, not interested in learning the art of leather, I realized that I could probably use EVA foam. I have worked with EVA foam before to make my kid’s cosplay and I had a roll left so I figured why the heck not.
First step was drafting the pattern. I changed the eyes. And ended up cutting the ear pieces separate for a few reasons. The smaller ears are a clue as to one of those reasons.
I laid my pattern down on the foam and used a pencil to trace it. You can indeed actually see the pencil marks, which is helpful.
See? If you look closely, you can see the pencil marks. I cut it out with an exacto knife.
Here’s the flat mask all cut out. The pattern is several pieces with the ears separate but I made sure to cut out the mask so it one piece. My exacto knife is dull, which means it didn’t cut the foam as cleanly as I would have liked but inspiration does not wait for new blades apparently.
I then took a thick needle and poked holes in the foam around the nose for whisker spots. Is that what they are called? I don’t know but it works.
If you hit the foam with a heat gun, the holes become more prominent.
I then glued the two straight sides near the V together. I ended up having to use hot glue but I would have preferred Barge glue. I tucked the V in and glued it on the flip side to help it stay put.
I hit the entire piece with the heat gun several times and then hand formed it. I repeated this process until I liked the shape.
I did the same with the ears. I glued the two points at the bottom of the ears together and then glued them down to the mask.
Here’s the mask before I painted it.
I painted it with several coats of black acrylic paint.
I edged the ears and the eyes with silver acrylic paint. I was planning on being done. But you know…
…I decided I wanted to get a little fancy. So I drew a pattern on half the mask with pencil. This is an ear.
Painting was stressful; I don’t have the most steady hand. I took lots of breaks. I decided the entire mask needed to be outlined in silver too. I punched holes in the side and added elastic.
Voila! Bunny mask. It’ll probably mostly live on our wall as decor. I should really hit it with a sealer to help prevent the paint from peeling but that’s for another day.
