Attic Lace

Deer Antler DIY

Happy Friday! I'm super excited to share this DIY because it may just be one of my favorites!  My mom and I were talking a few days ago about projects with deer antlers. Neither of us own any, and we couldn't think of anywhere to get them inexpensively, so then we thought..what about making some?! This was the easiest approach we could think of : Taking Model Magic and hand forming it to look like antlers, and then painting them:)

1. Gather modeling clay, wire cutters, heavy gauge floral wire. 2. Using floral wire, cut a few pieces and twist them together to form a "skeleton" in the shape you want each antler to be. 3. Then using flattened pieces of Model Magic (non-toxic air dry "clay") form the shape of the antler around your wire frame. Continue molding up the frame until you've covered all of the wire. 4. Smooth out any lumps or bumps with your fingers, finishing by gently pinching the tip of each "stem" to create the pointy ends of the antler.

Allow your antlers to dry 24hrs or more, and then paint! This is how I chose to paint mine:

I wanted the body of the antlers to be natural looking, so first I did a coat of light bone grey.

 I also added some browns and tans to give it a little texture, and a more natural feel.

Then I added some blocks of color, and stripes.

 When they were all dry, I decided to embellish each one with some trimmings. On this one I did some lace snippets, and on the other a teal and white twine, criss-crossed up the body.

Here they are together, I really like them both ways...either displayed separately or together like in the above photo.  These were a lot of fun to make, and can you tell they aren't real antlers? Well maybe up close, but I bet we could fool a few people! :)

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