Horse Headdress Mask Pattern
For Paper Mache
$12
Use this downloadable pattern to make a horse headdress mask for your next theater production, or to wear at Mardi Gras.
Either way, you’re sure to get some attention –
And you’ll get compliments, too, when you tell your friends that you made it yourself. 🙂
How to Use the Pattern to Make Your Horse Headdress Mask:
Print the pattern and put it on cereal box cardboard.
Tape the horse mask pieces together, and add some details with foil and masking tape
Add paper mache, using newspaper, or the brown paper from amazon boxes.
Bring your horse mask to life with acrylic paint, and add a mane with yarn or twine.
Finished size –
About 14 inches (35.56 cm) high, 6 inches (15.24 cm) wide and 16 inches (40.64 cm) deep.
It will fit an adult head, but the size can be changed by following the instructions on page 22 of the downloadable PDF pattern.
My downloadable PDF Patterns come with full instructions.
There’s no waiting for your pattern to arrive, and no shipping costs, so you can start on your project right away.
Note: If you’ll be saving your pattern to and iPhone or iPad, those devices like to hide your downloaded files. You can scroll down this page to see how to find them.
And remember – if you have any problems downloading your files or putting your pattern together, just let me know. I’m always happy to help. 🙂
$12
Watch These Videos to See How to Make Your Horse Mask:
1: In this first video, you can see how the pattern pieces for the horse’s head are taped together, and how to add the eyes and ears.
2: In this second video, you can see how to add the neck and cap pieces. You can also change the size of the cap if it feels too big when you try it on.
3: And in this video, you’ll see how to add some small details around the eyes and nose with crumpled foil, and how I painted my horse mask (with just one small do-over 🙂 ). I used chenille yarn for my mask, but there are many other materials that will work, too.
What You’ll Need to Make Your Horse Headdress Mask:
- The Pattern
- Access to a Printer
- Copy paper or full-sheet labels (I always use the labels)
- Glue stick if using copy paper instead of the labels
- Cardboard from 6 standard-sized cereal boxes or 12 letter-sized sheets of light chipboard.*
- Sharp scissors for cutting cereal box cardboard.
- Clear plastic tape and masking tape Note: Don’t use disappearing gift wrap tape – it isn’t strong enough.
- A small amount of aluminum foil
- One 1.25″ foam ball for the eyes (a slightly larger foam ball would work, too).
- Glue gun
- Paper strips and paste or TiteBond III wood glue. For paste recipes, click the “recipes” tab at the top of the site.
- For the mane I used bulky chenille yarn, but you might want to use another material instead – get creative! 🙂
- Primer or gesso to cover the dry paper mache, and acrylic paint
- Fake eyelashes and clear fingernail polish (both ooptional)
- Shoelaces or elastic straps to hold the mask in place
$12
When you finish your horse headdress mask…
We would love to see how it turns out, so please come back to the Daily Sculptors page and upload some photos. 🙂
Do you have a question or need help with your pattern?
There are two ways to contact me: The fastest way to get an answer is to leave a comment below. I read all comments and answer them as soon as I can, usually within a few hours. One of my readers might also chime in to help – we have a very supportive community here on this site.
If you prefer to reach me privately, you can send me an email.
I get a ton of spam and I don’t want your email to get lost, so please put “paper mache” in the subject line so your email won’t be accidentally deleted. If you don’t hear back from me within 24 hours, assume the cyberspace gremlins ate your email, and try again.
Hi, wanted to let you know a resource I use for paper is I ask our local newspaper plant if they have ‘end rolls’ and I pick them up for FREE! These are the newsprint rolls that run through the printers and have too little on them to finish a job. They are wonderful for banners, table covers and of course, paper mache!
That’s a great idea, Kaye. I used to do that when I lived in Oregon, and we had a local paper. But we don’t have one where I live now, so I totally forgot about it. Thanks for the tip! 🙂
Hello from Butler, Pa, Jonni!
This particular sculpture of the Arabian hit all the little-girl-heart feels for me!
I would love to see other horse breeds as well as some whitetail deer poses in buck and doe, and even a fawn. And a moose?!
Ill buy them all amd am placing an order for the buck and arabian asap.
Im going to try to use tomato cages for armature for a carosel horse.
Could you do a lesson on your pattern process, how you ‘do the math’?! Its an art in itself! (Of course dont share trade secrets)
All the best and God bless!
You are so appreciated.
Hi Kaye – it sounds like you have a lot of projects planned! I do have a pattern for a moose head, but not the whole moose. You can see all of my patterns here. I have a post about making interior patterns for animal sculptures, and wrote a book about the process, too. Until recently, I made all of my 3D patterns for animal heads by making a clay model to start with. Then I made a silicone mold of the sculpture and used it to make multiple paper mache castings. I needed a lot of them, because it’s not easy to know where to cut the curved pieces so they’ll lay down flat, and it usually took a couple of weeks, working full time, to get a pattern done the way I wanted it. I’m now using some computer programs to make patterns, to get the numbers along the edges, but it still takes a couple of weeks for me to do it, and I still start with a clay sculpture. Either way, it’s a very inefficient way to make a mask or sculpture – if I wasn’t selling them, I’d just make my sculptures from scratch, and they’d be finished much faster. 🙂
Thank you, Jonni for replying and sharing links.
I may have seen the molding video (wolf?) and that has my attention again so I can replicate my works too.
We have an amazing park in Cook Forest, Pa and a shop sells my hand painted slates. Id like to make some animal sculptures that I cover with decoupage dropped local leaves and mosses. Not everyone wants to shoot a deer or bear to hang on the trophy wall, right?
Have a wonderful-good spring day!
Yes, I made a fox with a silicone mold, and then I used the paper mache casting to make the fox mask pattern. I really like making sculptures that way, but I haven’t done it for a long time. Now that you’ve reminded me, I might do that. 🙂
Your decoupaged sculptures sound like a great idea. When you get some done, please remember to come back to the site and show them off. 🙂
Hi Jonni, this is my first time at your site and I am BLOWN AWAY!! When I buy the Rabbit Headress Pattern, can I also buy directions for making a silicone mold as well for multiple sculptures?
Hi Cindy. I have a video that shows how to make a silicone mold to use with paper mache. If you want to make a mold of an original sculpture that would need a two-part mold, or even more pieces, to get all the shapes, I don’t actually know how to do that with paper mache. But there is a YouTube channel by a lady who uses a lot of molds. She might be able to help you.
Hi Jonni, Hello from Brisbane, Australia. I love your Arabian Horse Mask, I have just completed your Mache Horse Head Sculpture but love the Head on the Arabian Horse Head Mask. I was wondering with the pattern I have for the Horse Head Sculpture do you think it is possible to combined the Arabian Head with the Horse Head Sculpture’s neck?
Hope your move goes well.
All the best.
Cheryl Ford
That’s an interesting idea! I just now measured both horses, starting at the top between their ears, under the place where their heads attach to the neck, and then back up to the ears. The mask is 17.5″ around that area, and the sculpture is 20.5″. If the mask pattern was printed larger, (maybe at 117% – but I’m not great at math so double-check that), you might be able to fit the mask’s head onto the sculpture’s neck. But the mask’s head would be quite a bit longer than the sculpture’s head if you do that, and it might not look right. Also, the pattern pieces would need to be extended or cut, because the two designs weren’t made to fit together. Still, If you don’t mind experimenting and cutting and retaping things, it could be an interesting project. If you try it, be sure to let us know if it works. 🙂