Mardi Gras 2020 is in the works!

Published by Manning on December 18th, 2019

That’s right, it’s not even Christmas yet and I’m working on next year’s Mardi Gras mask! This will be my eighth year with Skeleton Krewe, so this is my eighth big skull mask. Our skulls are top-secret until we unveil them on Mardi Gras morning, so I can’t show you what this thing is, but I can tell you I’m really excited about it, and it’s less insanely complicated than the mechanical skull with marching skeletons I made last year; that thing nearly killed me!

So in this pic you’re seeing the results of me building a base with tons of foam board, construction paper, bubble wrap, and tape, and then covering that with seven layers of paper maché, and then after it’s dry I cut the bottom open and rip all the guts out. That round shape in the back is the skull mask, face-down, and all that junk in the front is the base materials that I’ve removed; it always looks like more than I remember putting in there!

Anyway, I’m excited to keep working on this thing; I’ll reveal it February 25th, 2020! For now, here are my skull masks for all my previous Mardi Gras with Skeleton Krewe if you wanna see ’em:

2013: Regular ol’ boring ol’ skull (hey, it was my first try!)
2014: Conjoined twins skull
2015: Violin skull
2016: Cuckoo clock skull
2017: Wolf skull
2018: Axe Man skull and giant axe prop
2019: Mechanical skull with marching skeletons

Manning Makes Stuff - Halloween decorations, paper mache masks, costumes, party ideas, and more