Why’s it gotta be a skull ring?

…it doesn’t.  At least not all the time, right?

I’ve got a few projects in the works right now and a few of them get away from the custom skull ring thing.  Skulls: my bread and butter, of course.  Still, it’s fun to get out of skull island every once and a while and do something different.

Ian, author of Alien Phenomenology, one of my new favorite reads and the designer of Cow Clicker  (and the proud owner of THE Cow Clicker ring) just ordered a set of white gold wedding bands.

And here they are:

 

We’ve got a nut and squirrel theme here done on nice, substantial squared-corner bands.  This is how I like to do ‘em.  They’ll be comfortable, but it’s still a RANG.  Not some thin, whispy metal string tied feebly around your finger.  It breaks the plane of the finger and stands out.  It gets noticed.  My thing is, if it doesn’t cause you to almost rear-end someone in traffic ’cause you’ve been staring at it while you drive, it ain’t worth wearing.

  

 

 

New Pinky Ring

Gotta hand it to the Little Voodoo.  It makes a damn fine pinky ring.

 

This is kind of my answer to people who don’t want big clunky custom skull rings.  How about a little clunky custom skull ring?

Cat’s Eye and other projects.

I hate Spring.

Yeah, I’m just putting that out there.  I hate warm weather, sunshine, bugs, and pollen – so as far as Spring is concerned, it can go screw.  What is it that Melville wrote in Moby Dick about how great Winter is?   Something about making one’s own spring in one’s own heart with one’s own coals.

Something like that.  Can’t find it.

Anyway, this is the time of year I just stay indoors.  Luckily I’ve had some cool projects to keep me occupied.

First is Dee’s ring.  Let’s start with a sketch:

It’s that cut and dry.  Pretty cool, right?  It’s basically a Little Voodoo skull ring all sugar’d up with some kind of bright yellow eye (we haven’t worked that out yet.  I’m suggesting Tiger’s Eye, but Dee thinks they suck, so we’ll see.)  Also put some ears and fangs on her for extra badassedness.

I went ahead and finished up the wax for this:

So what do you think?  The nose sucks, right?  Yeah, it does.  Dee hated the stupid nose and I don’t blame her.  i don’t know why I thought a protruding nose would look right.  I made an adjustment and it ended up looking much better.

This MF’er is ready for casting.  We’ll figure out those gemstones later.

Not to be outdone, I’ve got a great piece in the works for Peter.  A massive custom skull ring on a  Big Voodoo frame with a dimensional heart carved into the forehead and turquoise eyes.

We’re on this bad boy – wax is done and ready to cast.

It’s gonna look great, but this goddammed blue wax is too hard to photograph.  You can just make out the heart and the thorns.

I’ve got some new cool projects in the works like a silver skull pipe-lighter, some custom wedding bands, and a giant version of the King Skull with a bottom jaw.  Stay tuned to your custom skull ring channel.

Black and Blue

This Big Voodoo skull ring is heading out to Jake.  First time I’ve done a setup like this.  Turquoise and Onyx for eyes and a cool inset signet in the forehead.  What’s not to like?

 

Usually when I set stones in a Big Voodoo, I round out the eyes.  Jake wanted his kept in that crazy Big Voodoo style.

 

 

If that symbol looks familiar, it’s because I’ve used it before in the Aztec ring.

 

Tat’s all Folks

I’ve been working a long time with no posts, I know.  Sorry I’ve been away.

What have I been working on?  Harold’s ring.  I’m glad to say it’s finally finished and it might be one of the best pieces I’ve ever done.

The progress started quite  a while back…

I started working on a wax for this piece many weeks ago, but the damn thing just wouldn’t take.

I just couldn’t get the details that we needed.  I decided to go digital with it and I modeled the sucker for a 3d wax print.

Technology.

So here’s the result.  The thing looks freakin’ perfect.

 

Cast in sterling silver, the ring has all of the detail I wanted.  I was able to refine the sketch and get all the right contours in place.

 

 

 

 

I’m shipping this on Monday.  I think Harold will be pleased.

I’ve also knocked out another turquoise signet ring.  This one is a spec piece – not for sale.  I’m working on another like it for Danny.

 

 

 

 

 

You might recognize the stone.  Truth is, I do a lot of these for people.  Not a skull ring….well not all of them, anyway.

Remember this one?

 

And also this?

 

Yeah, I love making these but they take FOREVER to block out and carve.  Each one is custom carved to fit the stone from a raw block of wax.  This means no base mold and no shortcuts.

 

 

 

This is why they’re expensive, it’s why they’re one of a kind.  If you are curious about getting one of these made, it’s gonna take time.  Also, don’t expect to pay less than 400 bucks – maybe more depending on how big the stone is and how hard it is to find. Turquoise and other gemstones with beautiful spiderwebbing like this are rare birds.

More cool pieces coming up soon, so stay tuned.

 

More of Tat

 

 

 

I’ve started rounding out corners on the top layer and putting the first pass of detail carving into place.  This one looks kind of crazy now because I’ve taken the pupils out of the equation.  I’ve decided to do them as a separate piece to ensure their symmetry and roundness.

Still a ways to go on this one, but a good solid dent made and more to come.

Taotie

Don’t know what it is?  Join the club.  I hadn’t heard of it either until Harold contacted me and asked if I’d carve one up for him.  Best thing is, he was able to send me a drawing right off the bat.

Wow.  So this is basically a mythic Chinese creature.  I’d seen the image before, but never knew what it was called.  How could I NOT take this project?  What a cool idea.  Plus, it’s yet another break from skull rings (my bread and butter, mind you).  It’s a beast of a project though and I’ve had to do some fairly extensive planning.

Step 1 was to make a depth pass of this ring to show which planes would be at the surface and which would be recessed.  And here it is:

This example shows a pass for depth and also a scaled down version.  We’re going to have to ditch a lot of detail to get this to work, but the basic lines have to be the same.  This isn’t the kind of design you can just marker onto a ring, so I started with the wax right away.

And then put the first pass of depth into it.

So much more work to do!  This isn’t the kind of project I can just plow through either.

See, I’m the kind of guy who really sucks when I lose interest in a project, so I can only work on something while I’m “in the zone.”  There are guys out there who can just power through something and I’m here to tell ya, that isn’t me.

Basically what that means is I can only work on it for a few hours at a time before I need to work on something else….get a fresh perspective.  Then, I can revisit the piece with virgin eyes.  Generally, I just perform better that way.

This project though…it’s gonna rock.  I can tell.  Things like the caveman….that could have gone either way.  THIS one though, it’s gonna be a hit.