https://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/gold-antlers-diy-rustic-project-tutorial-plus-terms-and-tips • Posted by adwildflower
Gold antlers are all over the wild web and I wrote this post to bring the impossibly expensive (no thanks, retail!) or the impossible (um, those horn things are cute but where do I get them?) to the very possible for my Dear Readers. This post is your beginner's guide to antler terminology and in person and online purchasing. It also will demonstrate the way I painted mine for Christmas, using one important paint in particular.
Gold antlers are all over the wild web and I wrote this post to bring the impossibly expensive (no thanks, retail!) or the impossible (um, those horn things are cute but where do I get them?) to the very possible for my Dear Readers. This post is your beginner's guide to antler terminology and in person and online purchasing. It also will demonstrate the way I painted mine for Christmas, using one important paint in particular.
I wrote a full length blog post about all the tips and terms you need to know for purchasing antlers online or in person. Head to http://www.adomesticwildflower.com/blog/gold-antlers-diy-rustic-project-tutorial-with-terms-tips for the full blog post. The short of it explains that you can get antlers from a variety of places. These are some of the sites a person could peruse. Use the general information above to help guide your purchases. The http://www.deerantlerstore.com is a wealth of information as well as horns for sale. I think their site is easy to use had lots of more in-depth information. This site, http://www.antlers-for-sale.com also seemed great and offered a wide range of types and sizes of horns, including dog chews. Other than being a natural chew for Fido, they’d be good for experimenting on, if you wanted to try drilling, painting, screwing, etc. Of course, you could acquire some horns another way. When out hiking about, you could find a shed. When you find one consider it’s color and condition. Darker color indicates it is a more recent shed while bleached white means it has been in the sun a while. The longer sun and weather have worn on the shed, the more porous and broken down the horn could be which would dictate which type of paint or craft you could use it for. If you find one, keep an eye out for it’s mate. It may be nearby...or it may be miles away. Finally, you could seek horns out via Craigslist or yard sales. This may be preferable so you could semi-arrange the horns on the spot for your intended project and feel with your fingers the surface and make paint purchases accordingly. - See more at: http://www.adomesticwildflower.com/blog/gold-antlers-diy-rustic-project-tutorial-with-terms-tips#sthash.LzFDUobC.dpuf
Here’s what I did. I found primer that has stain guard because my horn’s color was uneven, some were really weathered, and I was painting them a light gold. I highly recommend using a stain guard primer
I dusted them off, set them (and some pine cones and oak twigs destined for another project) on some cardboard and painted.
I used a couple light coats to good effect, and then turned them over and repeated.
When the primer is dry, after about an hour in warm, dry weather, you can spray with the metallic paint of your choice. I chose gold.
Repeat procedure as above.