Eye of the Tiger

 

 

If you recall my earlier post, I was discussing with Dee wether or not that tigerseye would be a cool stone to set in her cat ring.

Damn, I hate being right all the time……

A basket of skull rings. And other crap.

I’ve had a bunch of new projects rolling in. A lot of really cool custom jobs that I’ve wanted to put on the blog. Problem is, there are just too many. You get to a point when you can either produce work or just talk about it and my clients would rather me produce. My turnaround time for custom pieces can be a month or more as it is, so we’re not exactly talking about ride-the-lightning speed here.

Ive finished up Michael’s custom sugar skull with turquoise eyes and a heart with thorns placed into the forehead. I don’t know why this one was so damned hard to photograph.

 

The heart was dimensional like the thorns and the result is very cool, I think. Took a while to carve up, but it was worth it.

I also wanted to show the progress on Dee’s skull ring. We’re going to try Tiger’s eye for the eyes on this one. eh? Should be cool, right? Those stones are either going to make this one of the most badass sugar skulls I’ve ever done, or they’re going to supremely suck and we’ll have to go with something else.

Speaking of taking a while to carve up……Danny’s been waiting for me to finish this fucking thing for what seems like eons.

 

I freaking love these square turquoise signet-style rings I’ve been churning out, but they’re a bitch to make. I think I’ve ranted on this subject before. The solution, I suppose, would be to get the turquoise miners to make every turquoise stone the exact same size. (a simpler solution would be for me to make a template that fits most stone sizes and try to make adjustments as needed, but that just sounds DUMB.)

I’ve just started another project which promises to be cool as hell.

Tiki ring. yeah.

I have to apologize to a few would-be clients out there. I’ve been turning down a lot of work lately because I’ve had so many custom projects on the table. Please don’t take it personally and feel free to send me requests a bit later (sometimes its all about timing) and I’ll jump on them. Now this doesn’t apply to the dolphin jumping over a heart-shaped crystal people……screw you and the unicorns you rode in on.

To add to the stack, I’ve also been asked to write a book about skull rings. You read that right. Actually, it sounds like an intriguing idea. Why exactly does one wear a small metal version of their head on their finger? And if you’re going to do that, who should make that little metal version of your head and how should they make it? It’s going to include some history and cultural discussion as well and I’m hoping to include some comments from my favorite skullsmiths from around the world.

So stay tuned.

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.