My family is originally from Colorado, and during the late winter months, white-tailed deer shed their antlers all over the forests, plains and mountains. To unearth a shed antler is an absolute delight, and they can usually be found between January and April. We don't like to waste such a treasure, so they frequently end up as mantle pieces, candelabras and holiday wreaths.
An antler wreath is the perfect addition for a lodge look at a low price. After gathering or purchasing 10-20 antlers, you can begin to create your wreath! White spray paint (or none if you prefer), floral wire and some very tacky glue combine to create a gorgeous, sophisticated holiday wreath for the outdoors lover. For a full tutorial on creating an antler wreath, head over to ehow.com, or for the less adventurous and crafty, definitely take a look at these cast resin antler wreaths from Oly Studio.
Image: Oly Studio
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Nothing says festive like dead dear parts.
I admit I did not read the entire article, but it seemed that it was encouraging the use of dead antlers. Now, if it were a moosehead wreath, well!
They are SHED antlers. Geez.
**Word association slip!**
umm, yes that is supposed to say SHED antlers...not dead antlers. Though I guess they could be "dead"; just semantics.
I stand corrected. Nothing says festive like discarded deer parts. :P
I think it looks cool. Y'all be nice! :)
Shapes found in nature (even if they were originally an animal part) are beautiful to me.
Damn that's beautiful! Love the implicit crown-of-thorns reference....
I think deer antlers are sculptural and majestic, on or off the animal. Once the deer is done with them, why not enjoy them? They'll just rot if you leave them in the woods.
Love the wreath - beautiful.
Gosh?
It's beautiful. I think it's great to pick these from the nature when they are shed and make use of them. I have hair sticks (to hold up long hair) and they are wild and wonderful.
Beautiful, using shed antlers is no different to using dropped pinecones... so trendy at the moment though, and you'd be awfully lucky to find 3 shed PAIRS lying around to make something as cool as the resin version.
I'm not really allowed to do Xmas at work as the decor is all slick and stylish and too-cool-for-school, maye this could slip by unnoticed :D
Check the base for blade marks to confirm which you're seeing. Horns are sawed from a dead animal's skeleton, while antlers are shed naturally by a live animal. Although they look similar, that distinction makes antlers seem much prettier decorations to me than horns do.
I would love to find shedded deer antlers on wooded area walks. I like to look for anything natural...interesting fallen tree branches, wild bittersweet (very invasive, and kills native plants) to be picked, even interesting bird feathers. There's so many beautiful things in nature, you just have to keep an eye out for them.
Thistly beat me to the antler/pinecone analogy.