Tiki and Torques

1 Comment

Screen shot 2014-10-22 at 9.17.37 PM

 

I love this combo.  Tiki ring and a torque bracelet.  This man knows his gear.  As much as I’ve been a chain guy and I still love my Gotham wrist chain, I’m now a big fan of this torque.  They’ve been popular as well.  Wasn’t sure if you guys would wear ’em because nobody in the US was making a decent one in this style, but my question has been answered.

Screen shot 2014-10-22 at 9.16.15 PM

 

Since we’re talking torques, I thought I’d give some advice about getting these to fit on your wrists correctly.  DONT open them too wide.  THey don’t need to be opened up that much to slide on.  You want it to be extremely tight coming on and off.

So the way NOT to put this bracelet on is like this:

Screen shot 2014-10-22 at 9.15.51 PM

I know the wrist looks like the skinniest part of your arm, but it’s also the most solid.  It’s full of bones, cartilage, and scar tissue.  BUT if you slide the torque UP your forearm a few inches (where it LOOKS a lot thicker) it will actually slide on easier. See below.

Screen shot 2014-10-22 at 9.15.39 PM

 

Now you got that bad boy on and it’s still tight and right.  I’ve been knocking these out for clients and a few have been paired with rings.

 

 

Screen shot 2014-10-22 at 9.17.26 PM

If you’ve ordered one from me in the past few weeks, you should be getting it soon.  I’d love to get some snapshots of my f’king Torque Army out there.

Speaking of Torque Army, I’ve knocked out a special one for a warrior overseas in Iraq.  He’s got some custom stylized skulls on the end of his.

Screen shot 2014-10-15 at 11.34.26 PM

 

Tour isn’t up for a while, but I’m going to ship it to friends/family so he’ll have this bad boy waiting for him when he gets back state-side.

 

Behind Blue Eyes

It just so happens that I’ve recently finished some of my favorite Big Voodoo skull ring projects in recent memory.  They all came in at about the same time and each one had different challenges.  I’m going to start with Steve’s custom King Skull with gemstone eyes.  This f’ker was one of the most difficult projects I’ve ever had.  Fuck.

Screen shot 2014-10-19 at 10.18.45 PM

 

The trick was setting the stones a specific way and allowing me to do some custom carving on the inside of the shank.  Usually this leaves a pretty big cavern inside the ring so my hotdog fingers (or Izzy’s in this case) can reach in there and solder the settings.  Usually I cast in place and I can’t freakin’ understand why I thought I didn’t need to in this case.

Screen shot 2014-10-22 at 9.37.31 PM

 

Nothing beats a King Skull.  It’s the king of all jawless skull rings.  But these fucking stones almost beat my tired ass.  The sides had some pretty awesome dimensional carving as well.

Screen shot 2014-10-19 at 10.18.53 PM

Steve, the client, was a champ.  He waited patiently while my crew and I hacked and pressed and torched our way to finally getting these stones in correctly.  Steve’s a happy man now and I am too.  The ring is excellent.

From sleek to raw, I also finished a long-term memorial Big Voodoo ring for Rick.  This was a piece for his fallen friend Asa and we did it up right.

Screen shot 2014-10-15 at 9.06.37 PM

This is raw and powerful.  We batted ideas around for a while before settling on horns and a pure copper iron cross, cast and set flush into the skull’s forehead.  The turquoise stones in the eyes were gifts from Asa and we left them raw.

Screen shot 2014-10-15 at 9.06.22 PM

Overall, the ring has a kind of energy that I f’king love. It looks like it was hewn from a viking axe.

Screen shot 2014-10-15 at 9.06.28 PM

This is what the Voodoo series does best.  It gets that raw hand-carved look and feel into the ring, even if we trick it out with stones, custom carving, and copper features.

I also knocked out a pair of Big Voodoo’s for Pierce and his brother.  I got my hands on some genuine top-grade amber and PIerce jumped at the chance to get some set into a full-jawed version of the BVD for himself and second cigar-smoking skull ring for his brother.

Screen shot 2014-10-15 at 9.06.50 PM

I was given specific instructions to make the brows distinct and get ATTITUDE into these bad boys.  Custom as hell.

Screen shot 2014-10-13 at 5.23.48 PM

Pierce’s brother got a pissed-off skull with a cigar nub in its chompers.  Those are lab-grown rubies in the eyes.

Pierce got the amber and we went for a kind of raised eyebrow look.  It’s Clint Eastwood without the magnum.

Screen shot 2014-10-15 at 9.06.59 PM

LAST but not least, I finally finished a skull ring for Ice.  Who’s Ice?  He’s the cook over at one of my all-time favorite dives in Atlanta.  The Highlander.  This place is awesome.  Great food, great beer, and not a lot of collared shirts.  It’s dark, dank, and still sports a pinball cabinet.  Ice cooks his ass off and his grub has made Food Network more than a couple of times.  It was an honor to carve the man a custom piece.

Screen shot 2014-10-22 at 9.17.49 PM

 

I’m flat out tired.  I’ve had so many projects coming over my desk and I’ve been at this for a while, so it’s about time for a break.  I’m going to be taking November and December off.  If anyone wants to put in orders before then, I need them in the next couple of days.  I don’t really have time to do any gemstone work right now (except for turquoise, which is faster) so those projects will get moved to January.

I’m starting a waitlist for January projects, so email me if you have something in mind.  I’m going to be restructuring my shop a bit to do a limited run of each ring.  In other words, I’m probably only going to accept so many orders per year.  I’m not bumping prices up, but these rings are about to get a lot more exclusive.  Not trying to be a prick, you understand, but I didn’t get into this business to work all day and night either.

Got another post about the Torque coming up soon.  They’ve been moving like hotcakes.  Stay tuned.

Ordering

Funny enough, i’ve had a number of people try to order with my online order forms without leaving their email addresses.  If you send me a question and don’t leave email, how can I get back to you?

Makes sense, right?

“Hey man, are you currently taking new orders? Hit me back.”

                                                                                                    -Anonymous.  

Meanwhile, I want to remind everyone that I have to have the Christmas cutoff coming up.  I’ll need all Christmas orders in by November 3rd.

Otherwise, I won’t be able to get orders collected in time for Xmas delivery.  I’m at the bench and taking orders until then.  I’ve got a bunch of projects coming down the pipe soon, so stay tuned.  Happy rocktober.