Miniature Animal Head Mounts- Faux Taxidermy Brooches

Simple and fun jewellery project. Use unwanted (or wanted) animal toys to make these miniature faux taxidermy brooches.

Decorate your coat's lapel with something weird and unique.

Supplies

This project is pretty simple and straightforward in terms of supplies, but how you make it will depend on what type of tools you have.

You will need:

• good quality, detailed toy animal with a nice, interesting head
• miniature plaque
• utility knife (box cutter) and small serrated knife or hand saw
• glue
• paint or wood varnish and waterproof sealer

1) Toy animals are made mostly out of plastic or hard rubber. They are the best options for this project because they are easy to cut. More expensive and usually more detailed and had painted toys are made of resin, they are easy to identify because they are solid and heavy and have no give if you squeeze them. If you have a resin animal you might have to use electrical tools to cut it and don't forget to wear a face mask while doing it. 

2) To make a mounting plaque you have a lot of options. I provided a few files of possible mounts, so choose your favourite one and make it using whatever supplies and tools you have available: 

• You can 3d print it 
• Laser cut it 
• Make it in a woodshop 
• Buy a thin plywood sheet (1-3mm) and cut it out with a Dremel 
• Balsa wood can be cut with a scalpel, but it won't be strong enough on its own, so you will have to laminate it with polyurethane varnish or epoxy resin 
• Use a Silhouette or Cricut machine to cut several plaques in heavy cardstock and stack them together until you have a thick (4-6mm) plaque. 

3) Which type of glue you will need is again, up to you. Depending on your choice of materials, as well as the material your head is made of. For different steps in this Instructable I used hot glue, epoxy glue, regular strong glue, PVA glue and superglue. If you are not sure which one to use just get one tube of Gorilla epoxy as this one will bond pretty much anything.

Step 1: The Beheading

Use a pen to mark cutting lines around the neck. Leave 3-5mm extra, so you can trim it with a knife until your head is level. 

The safest way is to chop the head off with a small serrated knife or a hand saw and then do any trimming and levelling with a sharp utility knife. Keep on trimming it in small increments until your head is flush with a level surface. 

Step 2: Empty Head? Fill It In

This step is only necessary if your head is completely empty inside.

Fill the head with hot glue nearly all the way the top and let it cool down. If you don't have hot glue, you can use epoxy. Either fill it with epoxy or push some small pieces of aluminium foil into the head and then add a small amount of epoxy to seal the aluminium. The second option is better if your head is particularly large, so you won't waste too much glue. 

Step 3: Plaque Making

I cut the first plaque out of balsa wood, but I wasn't too happy with it, so I opted for cardboard plaques.

I used a silhouette machine to cut out of several heavy cardstock pieces in different sizes. I then stack them up and glued them with gorilla glue. Bigger pieces go at the bottom, smaller ones at the top and that way you can create some nice details and make the plaque look like an actual wall mount.

Step 4: Ready Plaques

The glued plaques were sealed with PVA glue to prevent moisture from destroying them and a little bit of wood filler was applied to the edges to smooth them.

Step 5: Align and Paint

I placed each head on top of the plaque and positioned it in a way I saw fit.

I outlined the shape of the head with a pencil.

Then, I went back and traced another, smaller outline inside the first one (red colour).

The red outline has to remain paint and sealer free, because this is where the glue will go that will hold the head securely on top of the plaque.

Paint, seal against the water and decorate your plaque as you see fit.

Step 6: Mount the Head

Using very strong glue (preferably Gorilla epoxy) glue the head to the plaque and let it dry.

Lastly, add the brooch fixings. You can use the usual type, but I recommend using 2-3 brooch pins instead, as it will allow for the brooch to sit flat on your lapel.