DIY Antler Art

If you follow my instagram feed you already know that last week I got all bundled up and headed out. To do what, exactly? Dig in an old barn of course!

Wren, my Aunt Carol and I all headed out of town to meet with a lady that gave us permission to dig around her out buildings for goodies. There were a couple goodies to be had (crocks, chandeliers, dressers, were just a few treasures we found) but the main reason for our excursion was the massive amount of old antlers and horns she had. I guess the previous owner of the land was a major hunter and didn't have much use for dozens of antlers! In the end I brought home 4 pairs for $40 and Carol basically filled my trunk with the rest LOL.

{ But we had some use for a few }

I LOVED that the horns had all sat out side for so long that they were nicely weathered and bleached.

The skull portions though still kind of bothered me. Some were nice and bleached, others.... not so much.

There is nothing I won't do to make a project happen, guys! I literally broke out the saw and trimmed down bone on some of these and scrubs dried blood and hair off others.

EWWWWWWWWWWW

I nearly dropped the project at that point, but when I clicked on a Restoration Hardware email later that night and saw these antlers I decided to just fight through the ewww.

BUT I still wasn't that fond of all the color variation on the bone portion so I came up with a plan to 'mummify' the skull with some linen scraps I had. I cut the scraps into nice strips and just went to town wrapping!