Mask making advice? (leather)

[Unkillable cat]

Hi guys. Im in the process of putting together my "bedlam steed" project as Im dubbing it, and as part of my costume want to make a mask to prevent accidental biting, I dont have access to a local leather outlet and only need a small ammount so its pointless ordering any online when I effectively only need an offcut.

What I do have however is a collection of donor leather jackets that I use as my main leather supply. What I want to do is find a way to use some of this leather but to shape and harden it. My first instinct is to simply make a card base, boil the leather to make it mouldable and then stretch it over and glue it in place.

I wanted to know if there was another way to go about the project that I wanst considering? any advice would be appreciated.

[Narsil]

If you're using garment leather, its won't mould and stiffen all that well on its own because of the particular tanning process generally used for that type of leather . I'm not 100% sure if boiling will work in this instance but its certainly a very tricky process to get right and you'd certainly need a fairly substantial mould as a fair amount of pressure is needed to form the leather.

One option is to get hold of some veg tanned leather, you can often find small offcuts on ebay for a reasonable price, this can be wet formed reasonably easily.

eg http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/VEG-TANNED-LEATHER-MIDDLE-SPLIT-1-3-1-4-mm-SIZE-A4-/160481986208?pt=UK_Crafts_Leathercraft_LE&hash=item255d78c6a0

Personally I would probably make a plaster mould from a modelling clay positive (either water or oil based) and use that to form the leather.

[Unkillable cat]

I had not considered eBay as a source of offcute, thank you for that.

I have the plans in my head now and I think your ideas of justt getting some fresh hide would be the best option. Thank you kind sir for the help.

[Unkillable cat]

Wanted to thank you for your advice. I made my first mask tonight, a half cast of my face phantom of the opera style and feeling very smug and self satisfied about it.