My papier maché experiments have been very slow and in discussions with Mrs Wilson I have realised that we couldn’t spend several weeks just adding layers to the masks, so we are going to combine the traditional papier maché with the instant papier maché as we think that it will be more accessible for the P3 and P4 children. So this week we are adding features. We revisited the masks from last week and looked at ideas of profile, how faces had 3-dimensional form. We felt our own faces for hollows and protrusions and again, looked at how these features became exaggerated with age, so that the landscape of the face had more mountains and valleys in age than in childhood. Sometime parts of the cheeks might get pulled in, cheekbones and chins might stick out. The children had egg-boxes, newsprint and masking tape and we looked at how we might use these to add contours to the face. I showed them how I had chosen to build up some of the masks in different ways to give them different personalities based on different family members. I worked on the floor and showed how I was adding layers and shaping them with my fingers and then the children were off. Every now and again Mrs Wilson would draw their attention to something that I was doing and the children watched and absorbed and adapted if they wanted to. Full intensity gripped the room. Mrs Wilson and Tanya made headbands so that the children could wear the masks without needing to hold them up manually. What an amazing parade as the masks took shape.