6 masks with religious, folk and theatrical origins: Wayang Golek, Wayang Topeng, and Ragil Kunig masks of Java, 3 more.

An introduction to ancient and living cultures around the world with maps, resources, and project descriptions using stencils to make some of the objects ancient people produced. Written in English.

More than 1,200 citations, ranging from making masks in kindergarten to academic books on the anthropological theory of masks.

Shows a young boy turning a plain white mask into a monster face by using colored markers and the adhesive tape that comes in the mask kit.

Mask Making Techniques: Creating 3-D Characters from 2-D Designs for Theatre, Cosplay, Film, and TV, introduces and demonstrates a variety of mask making materials, techniques, and styles to bring extraordinary characters to life. A foundation reference for mask making and design, the book features over 700 color photos and illustrations of different masks, as well as diagrams of construction and finishing techniques. It provides a wealth of practical information about material options, safety, how to build large- and small-scale masks, how to build armatures for appendages, options for coverings, and finishing techniques. Readers will learn how to use a wide range of materials, including latex, paper and fabric mâché, cold foam, thermoplastics, urethane, ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) foam, resin, found objects, and organic materials. The book also provides tips on topics such as how to create rigid polyfoam head forms and three different ways to create eyes, as well as step-by-step instructions to construct 13 different masks. Mask Making Techniques is written for intermediate mask makers, students of theatrical mask making, costume crafts, and prop making courses, as well as prop builders, costume designers, and artists who create Halloween and cosplay costumes.

In The Encoded Cirebon Mask: Materiality, Flow, and Meaning along Java’s Islamic Northwest Coast, Laurie Margot Ross situates masks and masked dancing in the Cirebon region of Java (Indonesia) as an original expression of Islam. This is a different view from that of many scholars, who argue that canonical prohibitions on fashioning idols and imagery prove that masks are mere relics of indigenous beliefs that Muslim travelers could not eradicate. Making use of archives, oral histories, and the performing objects themselves, Ross traces the mask’s trajectory from a popular entertainment in Cirebon—once a portal of global exchange—to a stimulus for establishing a deeper connection to God in late colonial Java, and eventual links to nationalism in post-independence Indonesia.