Jackrabbit Pattern for a Paper Mache “Faux Trophy Mount” Wall Sculpture
$12
A jackrabbit “faux trophy mount” is a silly idea – but that’s what makes it so much fun.
The pattern creates all the shapes for you. After it’s taped together and you’ve added a layer of paper mache, you can paint it any way you like.
Need a Jackalope trophy? Just draw some horns on cardboard and add them before painting – lots of people have done it, (scroll down to see some of them), and they’re adorable! 🙂
How to Make Your Jackrabbit:
My downloadable PDF Patterns come with full instructions.
There’s no waiting for your pattern to arrive, and no shipping costs, so you can start on your project right away.
Click here if you’d like to know more about how the patterns are delivered. (If you’ll be saving your pattern to and iPhone or iPad, they do tend to hide your files. You can scroll down this page to see how to find them.)
And remember – if you have any problems downloading your files or putting your pattern together, just let me know. I’m always happy to help. 😀
Be sure to watch the videos below to see how the pieces are taped together, and how I painted mine. Of course, you can paint your own jackrabbit any way you like. 🙂
When you’re done, you can mount your new jackrabbit over a nail, as I did for the photos at the top of the page , or you can get fancy and attach it to a wooden plaque for that true ‘faux trophy mount’ look.
$12
Watch these videos to see how to use this pattern:
To make this paper mache sculpture you will need:
- The front and back of two standard cereal boxes, or four letter-sized pieces of light chipboard.
- A small scrap of corrugated cardboard for the back.
- Access to a printer
- Scissors for the cereal box cardboard, and a box cutter for the corrugated cardboard.
- Copy paper or full sheet labels.
- Glue stick if you print your pattern on copy paper.
- Clear plastic tape and masking tape.
- 1” (2.54 cm) foam ball for the eyes
- Glue gun (optional)
- Small amount of aluminum foil
- Paper Mache (use paper strips and paste, or paper mache clay. Recipes can be found by clicking the Recipes tab at the top of the site.
- Acrylic Paint and acrylic varnish
$12
Just a few of the Jack Rabbits Made by My Readers…
Note – some of the jackrabbit sculptures below were made with the first version of the pattern. The new version has slightly different shapes – see the photos at the top of the page.
Made by Ada Tereshinski
Made by Chantal Nicolaes
Made by K.Leigh Walker
Made by Kristy Grieve
Made by Elle Bennett
Made by Terry Goings
Made by Joanna Cole
Made by Kathy Williams
Made by Julia Swift
Made by Gayle Walker
Made by Angela van Wayenburg
Made by Annie
Made by Julie Richardson
Made by Ewelina Dewerenda
Made by Andrea L Nelson
Made by Davina Starling
Made by Gemma
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Do you have a question or need help with your pattern?
If you have a question about putting your pattern together or painting it, leave a comment below or on the Daily Sculptors page. I read all comments and answer them as soon as I can, usually within a few hours. Some of my readers might ideas for you, too — we have a very supportive community on this site.
What are the dimensions of this one excluding the neck and ears?
It’s about 5″ high without the ears. The neck is only about 3/4″ deep.
Hi Jonni
I have recently bought your jackrabbit pattern but I am sure my printed pieces are smaller than yours, could you confirm the paper size you use as I have printed onto A4 but it doesn’t seem to fill the page, just wondered if different paper size in UK
I have cut out my pieces and to give you an idea piece L3 is 19.5cm at its longest points would this be correct?
Many thanks
Julie
Hi Julie,
The paper sizes in the UK and the US are slightly different, but that shouldn’t matter for the pattern. If you set your printer to print “actual size,” it will reproduce the PDF file in the correct size, no matter how big the paper is. Right now, your printer must be set differently, because when I measure L3 from the bottom to the point, it’s 25 cm long.
All printers have different print options, so I can’t tell you exactly how to change the settings so the file will be the right size. This YouTube video might help, if it isn’t too old: https://youtu.be/6lAVkdiL4Io
I hope this helps. Good luck with it.
Jonni
Hi Lynda,
I forgot to ask do you sell the cow head pattern by it’s self, or do I have to buy the set,cheers Petrina.
Yes, you can find the cow all by herself here. 🙂
Hi Lynda,
I want to make a bigger rabbit for my wall, I’m thinking all I have to do is enlarge it, I’d say your pattern would be a sml, and I wanted a lge size, how much percent wise would I enlarge your your pattern.
Also do you think I could use your bull head for a highland cow pattern, but just move the horns and the shape of them, cheers Petrina.
Hi Petrina. You certainly could print the pattern larger to make a bigger jackrabbit, but you’d need to do some math to figure out how much bigger it needs to be. The pattern makes a jackrabbit that’s about 11 inches (28 cm) high. If you print the pattern twice as big the rabbit should be twice as high. You would need to use larger paper, of course.
And yes, the cow pattern can be used to make a Highland bull. The horn patterns are separate, so you would just draw news ones on cardboard.
Have fun!
Hello Jonni. I am enjoying the Jack Rabbit pattern but can’t seem to find where the ears are attached. Can you tell me what number pieces they should be attached to. Thanks, Wendy
Hi Wendy. I place the ears right next to each other, where the points of 29 and 30 meet piece 33. You can see how I got the ears ready and how they were taped on in the video, around 7:12 mark. The ears provide a lot of the personality for a rabbit, so you have quite a lot of leeway in their placement.
I hope you’re having fun with it. 🙂
thank you for the flour and water recipe. I made 3 lamp shades. I’m really happy with them. I’m not quite finished, they need time to cure before I put in the cord set to hang.
Reid, we would love to see them. And if you post a photo on the Daily Sculptors page, a lot more people will see them. If you have a photo (250 KB or less) that you’d like to share, I know a lot of people will be very happy to see how they came out.
Done, fun project
Thank you Joni!
Support pin for ears
Covering
Assembly
Soooo happy with how this turned out. My husband has been chasing jack rabbits from eating our plants and burrowing in our landscaping by shooting garbanzo beans with a slingshot. They will eventually move on to less populated areas so I wanted him to have a momento. ?. I covered mine with air dry paper clay, not the DIY kind this time though ?. It is filled with styrofoam “dust” since I have so much from my foam sculpting. The weight of the clay caused problems with the ear connections so I added a layer of shop towels and some floral pins. Now that it is dry I don’t think there is a problem.
It took about 8 hours to cut, assemble and get it covered with clay. The next day was for filling some cracks in the clay and supporting the ears. The painting was on the third day. (I live in a dry climate so it may take longer elsewhere.).
Thank you! Joni for all of your generous sharing of experiments, developments, and inspiration. I have used them all many times.
Very nice, Terry! It’s lovely. And with your husband’s experience with marauding jackrabbits, he must really enjoy his new ‘faux trophy mount.” 🙂 Thanks for the photos you took when you were making it. What brand of air dry clay did you use?
I just used creative paperclay this time. It was handy and already made up so he didn’t hear me mixing UPM clay. Of course I waited until the last minute to get this made so couldn’t plan for when he wasn’t home. I do a lot of foam sculpting which I have covered with joint compound, mixes of JC and glue, UPM clay, or just JC then a layer of wood glue depending on what is being made, the kind of abuse it may need to take, and the longevity needed. I used to work with polymer clay but jewelry and small home decor projects have been replaced with much larger pieces, some 8’. So styrofoam has become my choice structure. I go dumpster diving at construction sites for some and have even gotten foam from people getting rid of their hot tubs which have thick foam in the lids.
Thank you again for sooo much help and inspiration
Hi Terry. Does the wood glue make your work waterproof? If not, what is it for? It sounds like you make a lot of sculptures. Do you sell them? And would you have any interest in writing a guest post for us, showing how you use the foam in your sculptures? That’s a post I would certainly love to read. If that sounds like fun, just let me know. 🙂
No, not waterproof, the wood glue just gives the joint compound a bit more protection. No, I don’t sell my items. It is a ministry for non profits along with murals. But I do have a few pieces in my yard that are experiments. My brain is not cooperating with me at the moment to let me know which coatings I used. It’s been a year so far and they seem to be doing okay. I will try to find my notes.
Okay, found my notes. I used flex bond grout as the coating, then titebond glue with water on that then painted with Drylok before using acrylic paint for decoration. I then used a coat of exterior sealer that is made for patios and such. I am in CO so we get some snow, rain, and lots of sunshine and wind. I had one part of a garden totem that was damaged when we had a tree replaced. I still need to fix that part but otherwise the pieces have held up for a year. Sorry, no photos of them right now, we are having frigid tempts. Brrr.
That’s great info, Terry. Thanks for digging up those old notes. I hope to try the FlexBond grout this year, for sure.
It’s a bit cold here in MN, too. It was -12° this morning when I woke up. I’m going to stay inside with a nice warm cup of cocoa and a good book. Stay warm!
I cannot wait to make this…
I hope you’ll let us see it when it’s done. 🙂
Hi Jonni, I finished my jackrabbit today. Thank you for creating this pattern, it worked so well! Now I just need to figure out how to mount him on the wall.
Hi Rylan. It’s beautiful – I love the way you painted it. Nicely done.
I hung mine in two different ways. The expensive way was to buy a nice wooden plaque and use epoxy glue or hot glue to attach the back of the jackrabbit to the wood. The easy way was to drill a hole in the cardboard back and hang it over a nail. You can get away with that if the material you used to ‘stuff’ the inside is larger than the hole.
I thought you’d like to see my clay version of the jack rabbit – his ears are a bit wonky (but I like him anyway). Not fired yet as he’s taking a while to dry.
They’re both really nice, Angela. Did you have any trouble getting the bear to fire without cracking? I assume you made him hollow. I don’t know a thing about working with clay, (which might be kind of obvious 🙂 ) but I think they’re great.
Yes they are both hollow – and no cracks (so far). The trick getting them not to crack is to dry them slowly 🙂
This is one of my smaller rabbit heads. He’s 10cm (4 inches) high. You’ve inspired me to go bigger. The jack rabbit is 28cm (11 inches) from the tip of his ear to his nose!
I love them – especially the way you’ve decorated the ears. Thanks for sharing the photo!
Finally finished the jack rabbit. He is not looking much like yours but I’m pleased with him.
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It’s beautiful, Angela. Do you have a kiln for your clay sculptures? If so, I am so jealous!
Angela this is so beautiful! I absolutely LOVE the colors youve used- is this for sale somewhere? Id be very interested on purchasing!
Thank you so much! No, he’s not for sale.
.
I did it!
Thanks for the video’s and the pattern! Without it I would never done it.
THANKS!!!!
You did a wonderful job on your rabbit, Ilja! I’m really impressed. He has such a lovely character, and you painted him beautifully. (or is it a she? 🙂 )And thanks for trying the photo upload again – I know the system can be frustrating. 🙂
Thank goodness for the internet.. I’m not one to really say such outlandish kudos, HOWEVER, stumbling across you and your Art is worth every bad thought I’ve ever had regarding some of the past decades technology. You my dear are the perfect recipe I need in today’s environment. Many thanks to YOU, to your care to share and your many amazing Creations! I’m making my Hardware/Walmart list right the last letter to this message….Ciao ciao
Gosh – thanks!
Hi.
Just want to tell you how happy i was when I saw you’r website. I wanted to make a bunny Doll. And this is the result – thanks to the pattern from you’r website.
Regards from Danmark
Hi Ina. Did you try to upload an image? It didn’t come through so it was probably too large. Take a look at the editing tips at the top of the Daily Sculptors page and then try again. We’d love to see it.
Wow mm what an art. thanks for this this magical art. thanks.
Hi Jonni!
So i’ve made 2 full heads of your scupltures and in the middle of another one. I’m so glad I found your website i’m in love with you 3D patterns! I was wondering how you made them? I wanted to make some more specific animals and would like to go off a pattern like yours. Also are you planning on making more 3D patterns ’cause they are great and i’ll probably purchase all of them hah 🙂
Thanks,
Anna
p.s I will post photos of my heads once i finish the last one! 😀
Hi Anna. I’m so glad you enjoy the patterns. I don’t know when I’ll have a chance to make some more – I enjoyed learning the 3-D programs, but I’m really slow. You might enjoy making your own. I used the Silo 2 program, just because it’s a 3-D program that doesn’t do anything else, like animation. Fewer buttons help me remember which one to push. But you can do the same thing with Blender, which is free. Once the 3-D pattern is finished, you use a program called Pepakura designer to take the pattern apart and make it printable. Do a search on YouTube for tutorials on how the Silo or Blender programs work. They aren’t hard, once you get the hang of it. If you do make some, by the way, I’d love to see how they come out. And I’m really looking forward to seeing the heads you’ve already made!
Dear Jonni Good,
Amazing work you do! You’re website is a fantastic resource. I am wanting to make a jack rabbit head to fit a human head, but unfortunately the link to the 150% larger pattern by Beverley Frey appears to be broken. I wonder if you could provide me with another link to the PDF file? Many thanks!
PS. It is odd, as the link was working perfectly well yesterday…
Yes, that’s true. Just out of curiosity, did you ever try to print that file? It worked on my printer, but not on most.
Hi Linda. I had to take the larger jackrabbit pattern off the site because the file was corrupted in some way. Some people could print it out just fine, but many people couldn’t. I couldn’t fix it, and I didn’t want so many people to be frustrated, so I took it down. It wouldn’t be large enough for a human head anyway. I suggest that you print the original on larger paper. You might need to take it to a print shop to get that to work.
Dear Jonni, thank-you so much for replying so promptly (and I must apologize that it has taken me so long to acknowledge it! And thanks, yes I did end up taking a print-out of the original (smaller) file and getting an enlargement. ? I must say again, how wonderful a resource and how inspirational your site is. I began creating the whole jackrabbit and then ended up using just the fantastic ears and making a mask from latex. Here is the result.
Hi Linda. Did you try to upload a photo? If so, it may have been too large for the system. You could edit the image to make the file size smaller, and try again. I would love to see how it turned out.
Hi Jonni, I just (finally) responded to your very kind last message, but I can’t see it here. Anyhow, thank you for your prompt response! Apologies for the very late reply. I did end up using your smaller pattern and enlarging it. But ended up just utilizing the brilliant ears and then adding a latex mask for the face. Here it is! And thanks again! ?