Alert: I have to warn you -this week could get very messy. Everyone was prepared with hair tied back, cover-shirts on and sleeves rolled up, but even with that, we needed to face the facts -it was going to be sticky! Before we started everyone checked the fit of the masks, making sure that they could see out of the eyes.

I wanted my mask to have a rounded head so I added a rounded crown from the top of a balloon. I encouraged the children to consider doing this if they wanted a particular hairstyle or the option of having a bald head but I think that only one person in the class is considering the option. I chose one of my prototypes and worked on the floor again with the camera tilted down adding strips of paper and letting the children watch as much as they needed to. Mrs Wilson did some testing in between times to see how strong the glue was and how much water she would add to the PVA and she demonstrated in the classroom as well so that the children knew how to make sure that there were no air bubbles or dry patches. The children weren’t used to being quite so sticky and at the beginning were a bit….delicate with how they were handling the strips. We encouraged them to coat every strip and to paint with glue before adding. Layers and layers built up, helping to connect and smooth off the raw peaks and troughs from the previous week. I used creative license, giving my mask BFG ears and a great big nose -lots of my family members have large ears and noses even if I don’t: perhaps my own ears might take a miraculous growth spurt at some point. I enjoyed shaping saggy cheek pockets and bags under the eyes. We kept checking in with each other was really impressed by the progress that the children made. By the end of the session everyone’s masks had grown a skin. As predicted, it was far too sticky for anyone to photograph much. I will finish off the layers later and take photos when I can hold a camera again!