Animal heads are popular decorations, they bring a rustic, hunter-inspired or even African touch (if you take zebras or rhinos) to the décor. Of course, this isn’t fauna-friendly and animals shouldn’t suffer because of our love to décor. Paper mache animal head is a nice way out, which allows to get cool decorations without killing any animals.
The technique is rather simple and even your kids can do that. Use newspaper and masking tape to create a basic shape for your head; there are also tutorials that include making a wire frame but it may be a bit difficult. Be as picky as you want, but keep in mind, this is going to be covered in at least 3 layers of paper mache, along with a shaping layer if you choose to include one, so it doesn’t need to be perfect. Mix flour and water to create your paper mache paste. The mix should be a little like a thin pancake batter. Experiment to see what consistency you prefer. Dip each strip of newspaper into your bowl of mache mix, run your fingers down the strip to remove the extra mix, then apply. You want each coat to be completely dry before you apply the next coat to help prevent mold or rotting. Decide how you want to decorate your head: paint or cover it with fabric or somehow else. Now let’s have a look what heads you can make.
Want some magic? A unicorn head is right what you need! The basic technique is like making a horse head but you’ll need to add a horn. It’s left as it is, with newspapers but you can decorate it in various ways if you want.
If you want some African vibe for your interior, you can make a zebra head. Make a horse head, then just paint it to resemble a zebra and that’s it!
This is another deer head made of paper mache, and the trickiest thing here will be making large antlers. Make them of cardboard and then cover with paper as the head.
A fabric covered deer head is a cool and fun idea. After making the head cover it with fabric, choose one type for the head, and something different for the antlers to make it fun. Here the head is done in pastel shades, which are so trendy right now.
This project is really difficult: you’ll need to work with wire. First make a wire frame of the head, here it’s an antelope. And then cover it with paper as usual.
A funny fox head will be a cool decoration for a kid’s room. Well, this head doesn’t remind of a fox head much but it looks funny and your kids an paint the head themselves.
This rhino head is a cool and unusual idea for your home décor. Here it’s left in white color but you can decorate it to look more realistic.
This project tells how to make a sheep head with rather interesting horns. Read the full tutorial to find out how to handle it all.
Here’s another paper mache zebra head made using a wire frame. Its appearance is more like natural thanks to this and it’s also painted black and whiye just like real zebras.