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DIY: Paper Mache Deer Head

chezlin ·

A while ago I made a post about how to dress up a paper mache deer head to make it look like two tone faux mounted deer head. Unfortunately a lot of people were having trouble finding these elusive paper mache deer heads, so I started working on a tutorial on how to make your own from scratch. Finally I've finished it so I can share it with you all! Like with my turkey candles, I made a rough 3d model of a deer head and put it through a program to make it printable onto flat paper. Then all you have to do is cut it out, fold it up and glue or tape it together!

To get the template for this project, click here!

Here's what you need to make a paper mache deer head!

Print out the pattern onto cardstock, cut out and assemble according to the instructions.

My printer was running out of ink so the lines and numbers barely show up on camera, but it should print better for everyone else. Assuming you have printer ink!

I filled the head and neck with crumpled newspaper to help it keep it's shape.

Here it is all put together. If you like how the deer head looks at this point (low poly/faceted) then you can skip right to the paper mache steps, but if you want it to be more realistic, you can go on and sculpt some more details into the head.

To rough out the details, crumple up aluminum foil and use masking tape to hold it in place. I looked up a photo of the anatomy of a deer head to help me figure out where I needed to add the foil.

Here you can see the face almost done with the rough sculpt.

If you want even finer details you can use some air drying clay to sculpt that in.

When the air drying clay is completely dried, sand it smooth.

Paper mache time! Rip the paper into strips (instead of newspaper I used brown packing paper) and mix up some paper mache paste.

Dip the paper strips into the paste and run them between your fingers to remove the excess paste. Apply it to the head, overlapping the paper about a fourth of the way. Since you're not going to hollow it out like you would a pinata you only have to do 1 or 2 layers.

And here it is, done! Technically this is the end of the tutorial, since that's how you'd make a paper mache deer head, but I will show you how I decorated this one!

To finish this one off, I hot glued it to the wooden plaque that I stained a dark color.

Push the head down firmly to make sure it's glued down well.

And here it is, done!