The Red Devil

I’ve had a few requests for skull rings with gemstone eyes recently and I have a pair that I wanted to show off because the results were just so cool.

This bad boy is a fully customized Little Voodoo with a pentagram centered on the forehead and a little bit of sugar around the shank.  Yet another example of how the Little Voodoo can be customized despite the small surface area.

This is a small skull ring, dig?  Or at least it’s small for my line.  It does best with one central image and then some minor ornamentation to support it.  Sometimes i get clients who request a smaller ring but have a ton of imagery they want to include.  If this is YOU, then you should really spring for the Big Voodoo.  Don’t worry about being able to ‘pull off’ a bigger ring.  It’s all about how you wear it.

Speaking of bigger rings.

Another red-eyed demon – this one a Jupiter with the stones set DEEP in the socket.  Fangs as well.  Pretty slick, right?  This was a tough one to build.

And then there’s this:

This is a Jupiter Skull ring with blue sapphire eyes.   Kinda hard to see in the photos, but there’s even a starburst specular highlight in the stones.  This is another example of the Jupiter ‘sugared up.’  Yeah, its a big ring, but we can fit a lot more imagery on the surface too.

I’ve also had a few requests for a smaller, more understated ‘realistic’ skull like the King Skull or the Jupiter….something about the size of the Voodoo, but with the classic lines of the realistic series.  I’m eventually going to do something like that, but I haven’t finished the Gentleman yet either and I have to take one thing at a time.

Still on the waitlist right now, but I’m taking new orders in late August so hang tight and stay tuned.

The Gotham Necklace

I had a client put in an order for an amazing project many weeks ago and I’m happy/relieved/and a little self-impressed to report that she came out beautifully.

This is a claspless full-custom silver necklace using my Gotham links, a special toggle I came up with in a dream after eating a bunch of Chinese food, and a custom hand-carved cross based on the client’s designs.

She’s heavy and might be the all-time crowned champion of “pieces I’d rather not send to the client because it looks mighty good on me instead.”   But no, she’s off to a happy home.

Making a Gotham is hard work when it’s only a bracelet.  A necklace like this is a real ball-buster.  Each link is individually cast.  The chain takes a while to build and solder closed.

Getting the thing cast and built takes time and a lot of elbow grease.  But to me, this is what is so f’king cool about wearing a custom chain.  It represents a lot of time and labor and there’s really no comparison.  All those shitty machine-assembled pieces just don’t feel the same.

The necklace before final polish.

I have a few more rings coming up soon, so stay tuned, but I’m also done taking orders for the Summer.  Yours truly is skipping town for a bit to get some R&R and I won’t be taking any new projects until August.   I’ll do one more big post before then of a couple of AMAZING custom skull rings I’ve been working on.

Sugar on Jupiter

A client pointed out to me that I never put a nice finished shot of this bad boy on the blog.  So here it is.  Follow me on Instagram at @mt_maloney_ or twitter at @MT_Maloney for more shots of this kind of thing.

Sugar treatment on the jupiter skull with a mess of jade.

 

 

Stone cold groove

I’m happy to announce that after about a year of development, I’m finally able to offer the Leonids on my online shop.  I’m very proud of these bad boys.  I’ve talked about them at length on earlier posts so I won’t go into another frenzied rant about how badass this ring is.  In fact, I think the word is out considering I’ve sold a lot of preorders and its been hard to keep up.

Check out the website for more details and ordering information.  Thanks to all of you for being so patient as this one was put together.

Back to custom skull ring land.  Had two projects I wanted to share.  The first was for Joe, a marine and all-around badass pirate based out of Florida who wanted an aged, darkened, tribute to Keith Richards.

That’s a King Skull frame with a lot of custom features around the brow and mouth.  I’ve also added some custom script.  In many ways, the King Skull is already a tribute to Keith Richard’s skull ring (his original done by Courts and Hackett) since the profile lines were inspired by their original design.  They don’t look much alike, but what my design borrows most is the philosophy that the skull ring should look its best from the 3/4 or even side angle and the rings lines should all be driven by the shape made by the crest from the temple up to the top of the skull.  This is how the King Skull was designed.

The Voodoo rings are a different story altogether and I just recently completed a customized Big Voodoo for a graduating high school senior.

I’ve done a few class rings and I love making ’em.  Why settle for one of those shitty looking dome rings?  They’re expensive as hell and every asshole in the world from middle school on up through graduate study has the same exact look to their academic jewelry.  Welp…happy to say that this bad boy is a one-of-a-kind.

Don’t forget, the skull ring is a symbol for intellect and our human ability to reason.  Perfect for a scholar, right?

Anyway, I’m back into the wax dust for a few projects that promise to be pretty outstanding.  Things are slow-going right now as I’m working on a number of long term projects that are eating into my time a bit, but shoot me an email at matt@mtmaloney.com if you have any ideas you want to bat around.

And one last thing….and please don’t take this the wrong way because I love every single one of my clients…but for fuckssake please leave your email address when you fill out the forms on my website.  At least five times a week I get “Hey, let me know if I can get one of these rings in a size 12.  Thanks!”  No name.  No contact information.   So to answer THAT question, I guess I’d have to say “No, you can’t.”

Just leave your email, okay?  I’m not going to spam you.  I don’t have the time or energy to put together any kind of newsletter.

 

Not a ring, but a thing.

So when I’m not making skull rings, I’m making other kinds of work.  In fact, my last experimental animation Loon is going to premiere at the Atlanta Film Festival this Spring. If you’re in the area, come check it out.  More jewelry next, I promise.

 

Darkstar

I didn’t design the Leonids to be used with a Black Onyx gemstone, but brother let me tell you this is why every piece is a collaboration.  One of my clients wanted a dark stone and…well shit, it turned out great.  So great, in fact, that by the time the Leonids hits the website (Very, very soon, I promise) it will be offered in either my classic turquoise stone or these new baby blacks that I love so much.  I get it – turquoise isn’t for everyone.

  

I’ll finally be updating the website in the next week or so.  These will be going live very soon.  Feedback from the clients who’ve emailed me for a pre-order has been overwhelmingly positive.  Please stay tuned.

 

Dusklight

I’ve been drying out in the South China Sea for a few weeks.

I know I haven’t been in touch and I’m down about 3 days worth of emails from clients but if I don’t get away from my bench every once and a while I get touchy.  I came through Atlanta just long enough to put the finishing touches on some Xmas orders and get them off to FedEx before spinning up through DC to New York for a weekend of shutting down some of the finest bars in the world.

What’s most exciting – to me anyway- is the first batch of Leonids pre-orders are finished and rolling out.  8 in total.  A few have already shipped and I have one or two waiting on some extra special touches.

Hell yeah.

I’m more proud of this ring than anything I’ve done before and it’s not even up for general sale yet.  My web guy Mason just won a design award too so I know his rate’s going up.   But hang tight because I have new stones on the way from the mine and I’ll be running these for 500 even on the website once I get up and running.

 

That’s a Full Right Hand set for Chef Robb.

It was great to get emails from clients over the Xmas break who’d received their rings and were already rocking them at booze-filled nog parties from the States to Singapore.

A client shot.  That skull ain’t mine.  

I’m not going to get started on the difference in quality between these rings and the standard men’s turquoise hardware you find elsewhere.  Best word to describe the Leonids: “solid.”  Solid backed, solid feel, balanced, bold, and featuring the biggest cold slab of straight-outta-the-mine turquoise you’ve ever seen.

I’ve also got a line on a few black onyx stones for these as well.  I’ll be offering these on the site too once I can confirm that A: The stones are the right quality and B: They look badass.

In the meantime, I’m going to be wearing out Dead Rabbit, Death and Company, Pouring Ribbons, and a few other haunts in NYC.  Stay tuned for a bit more on that score and some updates on the Leonids sale date.

 

 

In my hands I hold the ashes……

It’s taken me months of design, carving, redesign, recarving, and redesigning yet again, but I’ve finally finished what I consider to be the ultimate square gemstone ring.  The Leonids master cast is finally finished and set with kingman turquoise straight outta the mouth of the mine.

I’ve talked about the design in the previous post, so I’ll just get straight in to how proud I am of the final product.

She’s going to be for sale in January, though I have sold a few pre-orders that will be shipping in the next three or four weeks.  Running at $495 a pop, she’s sporting a full 28mm in height and features two hand-carved skulls on either side of the shank.  We can knock a tooth out or two if you want them to look banged up or we can round out the eyes for more of a sugar skull look.  Room on the foreheads of each for initials or whatever else you want.

 

On the back of the shank, I’ve put in a single eye and a bone crossbar.  Kind of morbid?  Maybe, but this bad motherfucker is the sculptural embodiment of some of the themes of Blood Meridian (probably my favorite novel)  and I wanted it to be as elegant as it is brutal.

Like I said before, I’m getting the stones direct from the mine, so turnaround time is a little slower than usual.  I’ve sold 6 of my first batch of stones in pre-order and I’ll probably sell the next group just as quickly before these finally go up on the site in January.  Color and inflection of the stones will vary and I’d caution you guys to be careful with these.  They’re tough as hell, but turquoise is a more delicate stone and if punching things is a regular part of your routine, I might suggest ordering a Jupiter from me instead so you don’t crack and screw up these gorgeous baby-blues.  Or at least take it off first.

The Full Right Hand

I’ve always considered the core configuration for any true connoisseur of big, badass jewelry to be the ‘full right hand.’  That’s a big, solid ring and a big, solid bracelet.  Drop that big skull ring on your middle or ring finger and then strap on a torque or a gotham bracelet.  It’s classic and if I could only sell custom skull rings alongside custom bracelets, I would.

I’ve just finished up a cool pair.

This is a custom’d – out King Skull with japanese style carving throughout the shank and a kamon on the forehead.  Natural jade eyes finish this one off and the client requested a gunmetal finish, which could not look more wicked.  The torque took the finish too and it looks like a piece of iron.

I’ve had a few standard projects on the bench and some other custom jobs, but I’ve been trying to squeeze in a little R&R as well.   My friend Maddie came out to visit all the way from New Zealand and she introduced me to Jade Absinthe 1901.

I’ve had absinthe before – kind of a regular thing for me during the Fall, but this 1901 is next-level stuff.  I’m tossing out my old, crappy brands and diving head first into the Jade line.  I’m kinda pissed at her for introducing me to this because this shit is expensive.  Means I have to get that Leonids line out and to market a little sooner than I was thinking.

So yes, the Leonids are just about ready and, unfortunately, the first run is almost completely sold out.  I’m going to have to get in touch with the mine and get some more stones, but yeah, I’ve presold nearly the entire first batch.  More on those beauties soon.

Fear the Reaper

Sometimes it’s a perfect storm.  I’ve talked about this before, but when a client can come to me with a rough idea with specific goals and a target aesthetic and THEN has the trust to just let me do my thing, magic can happen.  Ladies and gentleman, check out the black death.

This is a heavily modified Jupiter Skull ring with fully customed features around the eyes, jaw, and forehead as well as a reaper carved around the back of the shank and two rubies set in the eyes.

 

With rings like this, I need help setting those stones and my friends over in north ATL KILLED it with an amazing laser job. The stones are open from the back so light can pass through and the result is just awesome.  Here are some detail shots of the reaper.

Over time, this gunmetal finish will wear away to a high polish, leaving the recesses black.  But I also industrialized the finish a bit so it looks more raw and rough.  It’ll NEVER be a pretty ring and that’s what the client wanted.  She ain’t pretty, she’s fierce.  Heavy, solid, cast as one piece and everything (in my opinion) that a custom skull ring was meant to be.

I know I’ve done my job when it hurts to send her off into the world.  Sounds like I’m bragging, but it isn’t me.  It’s the client who had the concept and let the ring develop through collaboration.  Just like getting a tattoo.