Tooling Foil Masks with Folk Artists

Discussion: Mayan Masks

Pattern

Tin Art

Folk Artists

Folk Art Tin work, known in Mexico as hojalata, goes back to the 16th Century. Artists use natural, oxidized and brightly lacquered paints to create ornaments, nichos, mirrors, lanterns and other decorative pieces. Our interesting variety of tin work comes from Oaxaca where the artists use more natural and lacquered tin, and from San Miguel de Allende where oxidized tin is more popular.

The Maya occupied a vast area covering southeast Mexico and the Central American countries of Guatemala, Belize, Honduras and El Salvador. Mayan culture began to develop in the Pre-Classic period, around 1000 B.C. and was at its heyday between 300 and 900 A.D. The Maya are well known for their writing, of which a great part can now be read, as well as for their advanced mathematics, astronomy and calendrical calculations.

Mayan masks had a wide variety of uses: 

Some of the most complex masks were created to adorn the faces of the dead.

The Mayan's wore masks during important events, including during battle.

Whatever the use of masks in battle was, today’s scholars are able to learn a lot about the Mayan civilization from surviving masks made by the Mayan people.

There were also masks that showed the faces of people. We know that some masks were used in wedding ceremonies, 

There were masks made to commemorate many births and deaths.

The Mayan's also used masks for entertainment.

The uses of masks by the Mayan people were as varied as the style of the masks themselves.

Tips for tooling Foil: 

Use dull pencils (we used colored pencils

Work on a pad of folded newspaper

Project create a two tear tooling foil sun mask 

Step1: On the first square, draw a new pattern on each of the four sides

Step2: cut the corners off the second square turning it into a circle

Step3: Think about what type of mask you are making, add eyes, nose, mouth, ears hair, etc. 

Step4: using sharpies color both of the tooling foil pieces

Step5: using a large bead hot glue the square pattern foil underneath the round, mask foil 

MATERIALS: 

2 sheets of 5”x 5” tooling foil

Dull pencils

Newspaper

Sharpie markers. 

Hot glue gun

Beads