Making Vejigante Masks in Your Classroom

My students have met with success with the following possibilities. I have adapted these activities in K-12 art classrooms. I encourage teachers to consider which art activity is best suited to their classrooms, students, and supply budgets:

Papier mâché masks: The video/book set by Edwin Fontánez which is available directly from Exit Studios website provides step-by-step instructions, and comes with a printed pattern for mask making with simple materials such as cardboard, newspaper, and flour-and-water wheat paste. Students are encouraged to adapt their ideas from the pattern to produce their own unique masks.

Mini-masks: I have adapted the papier mâché pattern from the video to create mini-masks, which fit in the palm of one's hand. These small-scale masks have become more popular on the island for tourists and families who carry them to the mainland as mementos.

Ceramic Clay figures: With a small amount of ceramic clay, a full-body figure of the Vejigante may be fashioned to emphasize the movement and the colorful costume of the character. Ceramic clay may also be used to make mini-masks mentioned above.

Cardboard with plaster heads: Create a drawing of the Vejigante's body with oak tag and fully color or paint, then add the head/mask which is a plaster form that we made in plastic molds (which were originally designed for candy eggs). The plaster may be colored with markers or painted, with paper horns glued on with craft glue.

Construction paper: Using brightly colored construction paper of any size, students draw the full figure of the Vejigante and color them with oil pastels.

Fall 2002