Old Bicycle Seat Felted Taxidermy

This is how to create a faux felted taxidermy pronghorn antelope from an old torn up bicycle seat. Not only is a bicycle seat the perfect shape for an antelope head, but the padding makes a great surface for needle felting.

Bicycle seat, spray adhesive, felting needles ( various sizes), wool, acrylic or plant fiber roving, hanging wire, wood slice or mounting board, metal "horns", alcohol ink, dremel tool.

Remove what's left of the torn cover from the seat. This is pretty easy to do by prying up the staples with a screwdriver. Also remove any extra hardware from the back of the seat. Set the hardware aside, you will need to reuse the springs, nuts and bolts for mounting.

Using spray adhesive lay down strips of roving over the whole surface of the foam. You can use other types of adhesive but the spray adhesive if used sparingly doesn't interfere with the felting needles too much.

This can go fairly quickly using a multi-needle punch. Just keep punching until the roving is attached to the foam and it begins to felt and is smooth surface.

Add blocks of colored roving where you want them and just keep poking to adhere the fibers together and create the surface and design you want. When you get tired of poking or your hand goes numb, take a break, then poke some more.

Cut out the ear shape from flat acrylic felt sheets, then cover with roving and poke thoroughly until the felt pieces are covered with the colored roving. Attach the ears to the head by folding the ears into the position you want and poking with the single felting needle until the fibers are attached to the head.

I used large amber marbles for the eyes, made a dent in the foam where I wanted them and attached with ACH glue.

After the eyes were secured, I added more roving around them and then felted them in.

I used the bottom plastic piece from the seat and cut out the shape of the nose with a dremel cut-off wheel. I used an emery board to smooth the edges and then sprayed it with black rubber grip coating to give it a rubbery nose look.

Once dry the nose was glued on with ACH glue and I felted around it for more security.

I found this random piece of scrap metal at Goodwill. It's wishbone shaped and no idea what it is/was, but it seemed perfect for abstract horns and fits well into the hole of the seat.

I used alcohol ink to stain the metal and give the impression of spiralled horns.

I used a log slice for mounting and stained it. Add hanging wire to the back

Reattach the springs to the seat base. Drill holes in the mounting board and use nuts and bolts from the seat to attach the springs to the mounting board.

Attach the felted seat to the seat base using ACH glue for a strong permanent bond. Insert and glue horns into the opening in the seat. I felted over and around the horns once they were glued for added security.

It's ready to hang!