Mod Mischief

In the end we decided to go with the vintage fur.  But with a twist. Buck   I still wasn't happy with the fur I had on hand, so I dyed it with Nice n' Easy. I remembered hearing somewhere that the Museum of Nature used Nice 'n Easy hair dye to restore the caribou in their dioramas after their fur had faded from decades under the exhibit lights. So I thought I might as well give it a try. Full instructions on how I made the jackalope are over on Instructables .

My jackalope is starting to look like a rabbit with antlers, but now I'm not sure what to do. I had originally planned to cover it with some lovely vintage fur I have lying around, but the more I think about it, the more I think that I might prefer a more modern look. Chris thinks I should cover it in old book pages like this rhino from Anthropologie . I suggested making it sparkly but unfortunately he nixed that idea. photo from Ramshackle Glam

I really liked using papier maché pulp when I was working on Little Al's head . If you've got scrap paper and glue on hand it doesn't cost anything to make and gives you a lot more freedom than strips of paper dipped in paste. It's really easy to make. First you shred, rip and cut up paper until you have a bucket full of little paper pieces and then you fill the bucket with water and let it soak for a few hours. This time around I used a lot of black tissue paper that came with a gift basket Chris got at work and it gave the pulp a darker colour. The paper and water go for a spin in the blender and then the mixture gets strained and all the water gets squeezed out. You then add flour and water paste to hold it all together and salt to keep it from going gross. I also like to add a generous helping of white glue. The end result is a clay-like substance than can be molded like play-dough and becomes very hard when dry. So what am I using it for this time...