Duck Tape Spider Man Mask

This instructable will show you how to make a cool spider man mask out of duct tape and a few other materials. This mask looks pretty great and is an awesome project to do with some duck tape. You can actually see out of this mask (although the world does take on a darker tint and becomes little bit blurry) and It has fit on everyone I've asked to try it on. This design will work fine for a normal spider man mask (all you have to do is change the colors) but I chose to make it with the back spider man color scheme. I did this primarily because gray and black are the colors of duck tape I had but also because Carnage infested spider man looks cooler then normal spider man and if you disagree you can battle it out in the comments : ). Before I get into the back story, I have a few disclaimers... First, because of its design, the top of the mask is a little bulgy as you can see in the second picture. I did my best to fix this issue but couldn't quite get rid of it. If anyone has some ideas tell me in the comments. Second, this mask has horrible ventilation, so don't pass out. The idea for making a mask came to mind when my mom discovered her coffee bags were transparent only when your eye is right up next to the bag. I thought this was super cool so I set to finding a way to use this bags and making a mask was the obvious answer. I didn't have any fabric, or sowing skills, but I did have duct tape and guess what, there was a duck tape contest happening so it was a win win. I then did some simple theorizing and duck tape models (out of which came my duct tape ball) and then set to it. I actually got the design first try (thank you God!) so it didn't take to much duck tape. Then, just like that, the duct tape spider man mask was born! Now I'm asking you bear with me as explaining duct tape can be tricky but if you follow the pictures you will be all right. Lets get to making!

What you will need:

Materials:

1. About a role of black duck tape (mine was called cloth tape but tomato potato).

2. About 1/4th a role of silver duck tape

3. A coffee bag like the one I said earlier or I've been told a space blanket will work. https://www.instructables.com/answers/I-have-a-ma...

follow this link to a conversation I had with the instructables community for some more info (also thanks for the help everyone who helped answer my question!)

4. Saran wrap, plastic wrap or whatever you call that thin plastic you put over food to keep it fresh.

Tools:

1. Scissors

2. (optional) a mirror

Step 1: The Rough Cut

Ok, the first thing you need to do is make the rough cut of your mask. I apologize for the extra length of the vertical strip of duck tape in the first pictures I didn't realize it need to be shortened until later. Start by taking your coffee bag (or similar material) and cutting out the shape of spider man's mask eyes. Its helpful to look at a picture online for this but the shape they should be is in the first picture. Make sure your cuts are identical for the eyes and then tear a piece of duck tape the right length. Well whats the right length you may ask.... To figure out the length of your strip of duck tape hold one end of it below your chin, sticky side facing out, and unroll the duct tape till the other end is at the back of your head and tear. This is just a safety precaution against the varying sizes of heads so if you don't want to measure the length thats best for you, then make your strip between 16 and 17 inches. Now place your eyes, pointy end slanted up, about 5 in above the bottom of your mask. If you want to know were they should go exactly put the duct tape blow your chin again and find what point your eyes are on the mask. Once you've placed your eye cut outs, you should have something that looks like picture 2 (except your strip shouldn't be as long). Now measure the distance from where you placed your eyes to the bottom of your strip of duck tape and make six more strips of duck tape about the same length (about 5 in). Place these over your eye cut outs so that the sticky side is up and the cut outs should be mostly concealed from your view as shown in picture 3. Next, take the remaining 4 strips and place them so they divide each of the four quarters you made in half. Now you can fill in all the gaps to make a solid circle and cover the sticky side with plastic wrap. Be warned, it is extremely difficult to remove the plastic wrap after you have placed it so be careful. Your mask so far should look like picture 5. Your circle should be composed of 16 pieces of duck tape. You can put a mark on the bottom three or just make a mental note. Now attach duct tape to the back end of the two strips on either side of those three you marked. The pieces you just added should be vertical and should run down a little lower then the lowest point of your circle. Picture 6 can help you understand what I'm talking about... Your going to do the same thing with the next 2 strips on either side but in order to run the pieces down you need to extend the circle strips a bit. To do this, attach to the back of the next two circle strips on either side a horizontal extension strip about 2 inches long, for the lower strip and 3 inches long for the higher strip. Then run pieces of duct tape down so they are even with the two you already ran down on each side. Take a look at picture 7 to help you understand... Now cover the sticky side of these pieces of duct tape with plastic wrap. Lastly you need to extend the top 4 pieces of the circle. To do this attach 4 pieces of duct tape, about 6 inches in length, to the back of the top two pieces on either side of the original strip. The 4 pieces should be flat with the original strip. Now cover the sticky side of these pieces in plastic wrap and it's ok if there is a little space between each strip. There you go, you've done it! The end product should look like the last picture and be non-sticky because of the plastic wrap.

Step 2: Form It

Good job! Your doing great! Now you need to flip the whole thing over. Once you have flipped it over use your scissors to curve the bottom two edges. By now your mask should look like the first picture. Next lift the eye cut outs up (I used scotch tape to demonstrate) and cut out the section of duct tape they cover. Now round the bottom two corners more drastically and slightly round out the top two corners. Your mask should now look l like the 3rd picture. Now I'm going to make up some terminology so you can follow me. Find the furthest right corner of your mask, the only right corner thats still pointy. We're going to call the flat side next to this corner side A and on the other side next to the left corner, side B. Now remember how there was originally a rectangle above the circle part of your mask before we rounded to out? Well we are going to call the right side of that rectangle side C and the left side, side D. Now what your going to do is attach side A to side C and side B to side D using two strips of duct tape of equal length. Once you've done that you should have a mask that looks like picture 4. See those pointy corners that are just formed at the top of your mask. Well we are going to have to get rid of those and the best way to do that is to push those corners and then put a strip of duct tape over the spot to cover the indent as shown in picture 5. Now go to the inside of your mask and cut those indented corners off. This is to make sure they don't push on your head when its in the mask and make make the top of your mask poofy. Once the corners are cut off the inside should look like picture 6. Now try the mask on and take a selfy or look in a mirror. You will see the bottom of your mask comes straight down and doesn't hug your face like spiderman's does. To fix this identify the original center strip and and pull it so its under your chin. There should be two duct tape folds that stick out when you do this. Fold these toward your center strip and duct tape over the folds so you can't see the crease. Your mask should look like picture 7. (I added a little arch so the mask would hug my neck a little better but this isn't necessary). Lastly put the mask on one more time and fold the top back of your mask just like you did on the bottom. These folds give your mask a more rounded shape and help the mask hug your head more. Wow, thats a lot of explaining. You did it and are done with the second step!

Step 3: Deccorate

Your almost done! Now all your spider man mask needs is some touchups. First cover up any spots where plastic wrap shows through with duct tape. Then tape the top of your eye cut outs down as shown in picture 2. There is two reasons why you only tape down the tops of you eyes. First it looks better and keeps the eyes more rounded. second it helps a little bit with the ventilation issue. Once you've done that use your silver duck tape to make thin strips that you will use to make the frame of the webbing. Its best to use a picture to help but when your done it should look like picture three. Lastly make the circles of webbing using the sliver duct tape and a picture of spiderman online or the front picture. After that your mask is done! It should look like the picture on the first step. Thanks for hanging with me and congratulations on making your mask! Comment below if you make it or if you have any questions.