I’m really digging this recent pair of custom orders. Skull rings with gemstones? I’ve got two unique takes here: one a Jupiter and one a Big Voodoo.
Both are fully sugared up – the Jupiter with jadeite eyes and a full sugar aztec theme around the rest of the ring. The other has a central image of an owl and then yellow and black stones for the eyes. I’ll be putting more shots of both of them up on my Instagram page. If you dont follow me there, you should. It’s where I put most of my special sale announcements and show a lot of progress.
I’ve done a few custom Jupiter skull rings recently. The form is so classic that we can really go nuts with the surface and still get something with a lot of structure to it. Setting gemstones in it is a bit of a war.
But this one turned out great. See a few more shots below.
I’m very proud of this ring, obviously. Weird to make a piece of art that I’m actually happy with, but the last few rings I’ve done have just turned out so f’king well. I DID fuck up a Tiki that I’m currently re-making for a client. Sorry about that. This one and the Tiki are my toughest sculpts so the chance of me totally laying an egg is a bit higher.
I set out (like seven years ago or something) to make the best skull ring you could get. Standing on the shoulders of giants like Courts and Hackett, Tony Creed, CrazyPig, and Ruby Crush, I wanted to make the largest, solid-but-wearable skull ring on the market – at least in the United States. Like the man said, “If your’e going to try, go all the way. All the way.”
So did I do it? Honestly, I’m not sure. I think what I realized when I made the Jupiter was that there is no “best” ring. There are simply levels and at the top of the levels is this little bar. And leaning on the bar are these badass skullsmiths like Julian Lamb, Tony Creed, Courts and Hackett, the Deadringers maniacs, and Armand at Crazy Pig and a few other guys like John Mettier at JM Customs Skull Rings and Demitri Bakogiorgis who makes so much freakin’ product I don’t know how he has time to eat. The ghost of Dave at Dave’s Custom Skullrings is there who probably wins the award for craziest website. Josh Warner is there, but but good luck getting one of his skullrings nowadays. (He designed this amazing Club Ring which is taking the world by storm, and rightly so.) Every day, more people make it to this bar and they all have the same realization: it doesn’t stop.
Because the guys sitting next to you are still learning and you’re still learning and everyone still feels like there’s so much more to do. Everyone is inspiring too. Somebody drops a new piece and everyone says “damn, I have to up my game.” When I see Into the Fire Jewelry put out these badass blackened skull that look like they were carved out of obsidian or Ruby Crush drops this fucking amazing gemstone ring…….
So…..
I’m going to design a new jawless skull ring that will replace the King Skull as THE fucking jawless ring on the market. Just sit tight and you’ll see progress throughout the year. I hope to have it live for Xmas, but you know me. I’m slow as shit. I’m going to retire the current King model and redesign it. I love it too, but it’s time for a change.
If you’re the owner of my classic King Skull, hang onto that puppy tight because it will soon be ‘out of print’ so to speak. I love this fucking ring. I could keep making them, sure, but i kind of like the idea of the piece being completely retired out of respect and given over to the ages. Makes it more of a collector’s item and preserves the purity of the design.
It’s also with a heavy heart that I announce that the Gentleman ring is officially out of pre-orders and will be going live on the site in a few weeks. Stay tuned for more of that as well. Look at that freakin’ master wax:
So I’ll leave you with an inspirational video. What?
Skullworks 