The Vegetarian Hunters Trophy

We are all big hunters and proud of showing off our achievements. I think it was a caveman who hung his gain on the wall to show of his skills. A modern alternative to the real thing: reshape your detergent bottles into animal skulls. First kill all the stains in your garments and then show off the "kill" you made. Fierce! 

Especially big bottles with a handle are very useful. they come in different shapes and sizes. All are usefull so this instructable doesn't give instructions for one specific animal, but tries to explain how to turn every bottle into a work of art.
More idea's on my website: www.ruudvankoningsbrugge.nl. Look for "flesfossiel" ( bottle fossil) in the menu. 

Most bottles with a handle can be cut like this example. The hole from the handle becomes eyes. Leave the top part of the bottle wide, narrowing down towards the nose. This will become the sides of the skull. divide it into two equal halves. Note that the inside of the handle also needs to be cut in halves. It sounds more tricky than it really is. The triangle at the bottom becomes a forehead. Cut of the neck of the bottle with a small hacksaw and cut other linse with a pair of normal scissors. For thicker parts of the bottom i used small all purpose scissors.

Arrange the forehead and the two sides to your liking. Connect with tie-wraps. Enlarge the eye opening. Make two holes in the nose.
Most of the time it is best to begin with a tie-wrap in the nose. Then cut the forehead so it fits round the eyes. The next two tie wraps are placed above the eyes, in the brow.

Select a bottle to cut the horns. Draw them on. It is usually the same on each side of the bottle and then cut in half. See how the fit. What is most characteristic: straight up, wide, to the front, to the back. Everything is possible. Find spots where horns and head meet and pull a tie wrap trough.

Other photo's illustrate that it needn't be simple straight horns. It could be curled ones, antlers or anything you can think of. 

Because there are gaps between the different parts and paint doesn't stick well to the plastic I covered most of the heads with a thin layer of paper. As glue I used acrylic structure paste. A product used by artists. Sometimes I left the horns bare for a shiny metallic look. Then you better roughen up the plastic with sandpaper.

I painted everything with acrylic artist colors. There is no telling what colors are needed. The sky is the limit. You could paint it more or less bone color; off white, ochre, grey. I rather like sort of a green bronze. First a layer of black, then not quite covering the black a green layer ( chroomoxide) and some gold on the rims. But blues can be attractive too. Watch out for reds, it is all to quickly associated with blood on these heads. For horns I used copper and gold most of the times.

The shape of the bottle "dictates"the end result. Before anything look at the bottle and decide if the shape gives possibilities for a dog, horse, a deer or any other animal ( a dinosaur!). While drawing, cutting and choosing ears- horns e.g. keep that animal in mind and experiment.