Primary materials: Plastic from one-gallon and two-gallon water bottles, braided thread, cable ties, markers, electro-luminescent wires.
This gets its basic shape from a two-gallon water bottle. It’s the first time I’ve used one of these. You might think that it would save a bunch of work, because a bottle that size is already basically big enough to stick your head in. Actually this isn’t the case. There are a lot of ridges that I needed to cut out, along with the handle on top, the spout, the bottom, and the front, so while the two-gallon bottle did lend its general shape and provide a backbone for the project, it didn’t particularly streamline construction.
Putting on all the spikes probably doubled the length of the project. It was a lot of work making so many of them and getting them relatively even in shape. I used cable ties to attach most of them to the main structure. This let me get good connections in areas where I wouldn’t be able to reach in and tie knots in thread.
Normally, I wouldn’t put so many eye and air holes into a mask, because it’s too easy to see the wearer’s face through them. But this is specifically designed to be worn at night with the lights on. When they’re on and flashing, they pretty much obscure the wearer.
I found the coloration to be a challenge. When this is lit up it has a glowing deep-sea-creature look to it, but when it was blank and without lights, I wasn’t sure which way to go. The shape doesn’t dictate an obvious color pattern, and I wanted to use light colors to let the lights shine through, so this limited my options. Eventually I decided to make a repeating pattern of three colors that would mirror the three colors of lights I intended to use.
This mask has a total of 45 feet of luminescent wire.
Though a big mask from a dimensions standpoint, this is quite light and comfortable. The eye and air holes provide good vision and breathability.