I decided to make my own life mask (above) after recently becoming intrigued by the concept of death masks. Wikipedia:

In Western cultures a death mask is a wax or plaster cast made of a person’s face following death. Death masks may be mementos of the dead, or be used for creation of portraits. It is sometimes possible to identify portraits that have been painted from death masks, because of the characteristic slight distortions of the features caused by the weight of the plaster during the making of the mold. In other cultures a death mask may be a clay or other artifact placed on the face of the deceased before burial rites. The best known of these are the masks used by ancient Egyptians as part of the mummification process, such as Tutankhamon’s burial mask.

In the seventeenth century in some European countries, it was common for death masks to be used as part of the effigy of the deceased, displayed at state funerals. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries they were also used to permanently record the features of unknown corpses for purposes of identification. This function was later replaced by photography.

Shorpy has this grisly image of a death mask being made in New York circa 1908.

Wikipedia has photos of some interesting masks including a life mask of Abraham Lincoln and a death mask of Blaise Pascal.

When looking for instructions on how to proceed with making my mask, I found these two articles handy (I followed the second one in the event):

Check out the extended post below for more photographs of my attempt to make a life mask.

My dad kindly obliged to bandage my face up! It was hard not to smile — and thereby ruin the whole effort — given the silliness of the scene.

By the time the mask came off, it was dark outside. Very weird — like going into the cinema while it’s light outside and exiting after dark has fallen.

Here’s the mask fresh out of the mould.

I had to slather my beard, hairline, eyelashes and eyebrows with vaseline in order to prevent my hair being ripped out by the plaster after it had dried.