How can I make a beautiful headgear with antlers?
Maybe you want to dress up your LARP or fantasy character. Or perhaps you want to create a pagan-inspired headgear. Either way, antlers can be a great addition to a headpiece. However, due to their weight, they can be tricky to attach to a headgear. Glue is rarely strong enough to keep them in place and because of their length they will quickly wobble and come loose again. We'll show you how to best make a headgear with antlers.
The most sturdy way to attach real antlers to a headpiece is by screwing them in. The base of the headpiece needs to be sturdy and wide enough so the antlers can be properly attached and the headpiece stays well balanced.
Options for the base include, for example, a strip of metal bent into a headband, layered strips of leather, or a sturdy cap/helmet base.
What do you need?
-antlers
-drill
-punch (optional)
-file
-screws
-glue
-headpiece base of your choice
-foam or other soft padding (optional)
-decorations of your choice
-hot glue
How to attach antlers to a headpiece:
Step 1:
Place the antlers firmly in the vise.
You can now drill a hole into the antlers from the bottom. Antlers are quite hard, so if you want to drill into them, you'll need to apply some pressure, but be careful not to drill too fast. This can cause the antlers to split or crack.
The material of the antlers gets hot during drilling, which can cause the material to stick to your drill bit. I'd advise you to regularly pause the drilling, pull the drill bit out of the antlers and clean the drill bit before continuing.
Step 2:
Mark the placement of the antlers on the base of your headpiece. Use the drill or a punch to make holes in the base at the location of the markings.
Push the screws through the base of the headpiece, with the screw heads on the inside of the headpiece. Drip some glue into the hole you've drilled in the antlers and slide them onto the screw. Hold them firmly in place until the glue has hardened enough so the antlers don't start to tip over.
Repeat this for all antlers you want to use in your headpiece.
Try on your headpiece. If the screws are pressing too much into your head, you can glue a strip of foam or other padding to the inside of the headpiece to make wearing it more comfortable. Don't make the padding too thick, otherwise the headpiece could become too wobbly.
Step 5:
If you've attached your antlers to something that looks like a headband, you can leave it as is and use it that way.
You can now also add more decorations to the headpiece, if that's the look you're going for. Most decorative items can be easily glued on with hot glue.
If you've used a cap-shaped base, you can now start building out the rest of your headpiece. For example, you can cover it with fur or woolen fabric, or glue other decorative things on it until the base is no longer visible.
