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.
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.
Yes, after a whole lotta sculpting and some exceptionally difficult stone setting for some reason, I’ve finally finished Marty’s Austral and the rock ‘n roll ring for James.
This is good, because I’m WAY behind on some waxes I’m supposed to be working on.
Let’s get to it, because I have to get back to work. Here are some shots from Jame’s rock ring.
Think it turned out great. The mic texture on the side is a little tough to photograph, but you can see it peaking from behind the orbital bone of the skull. I’m shipping this one out in the AM.
Aaaand, here’s the austral.
This f’ker is so comfortable to wear (on my pinky) which is crazy because it really looks heavy. Well, it is heavy….but I kept the shank nice and thick with a good solid bevel so it’s well-balanced.
Now I have some waxes coming out too, so stay tuned for those. I’m hoping to make another post in the next two days. See you on Wednesday.
Wow, I got a whole bunch of waxes done thanks to my pal Adam, who helped me cast all these f’kers from my master molds. I’ve had some patient clients waiting for Big Voodoos and now I can finally start carving on these base casts into voodoo magic.
What have I been doing in the meantime? Finishing up a few King Skulls, a Little Voodoo, a few custom orders, and Sue’s mega mystery cave.
That’s James’ “Memento Mori” King Skull. All done and ready to ship. Skull ring in-bound.
Then we have Chuck’s badass Little Voodoo.
Normally not fancy enough for me to blog about, but I just don’t get enough engraving requests on these LVDs and I thought I’d show one off.
Big news is that Sue’s Mega Myster is almost finished.
BIG and HEAVY. Sue must be strong as hell because this thing weights like 6 pounds.
We’re not quite done with this, though. We’ve got some special work to do in the eyesockets. Something kind of subtle and cool. We’ll get back to that.
In the meantime, happy new year to all of you battlecats. I’m planning (still) on a few new base rings this year, so stay tuned.
Skullworks 