Glass or wax?

Dee isn’t only a client, she’s also an artist and designer herself.  She’s crafted and  sent me some BADASS glass skull beads.

These little f’kers are so cool- the pics don’t really do them justice.  Dee makes these in her shop.  She hasn’t put together an official online shop yet, but that might be in the future.  Who knows?

Pretty freakin’ cool.

I’ve been working on….yeah, more wax.  I’ve got a batch of little silver fellas coming out soon for a few clients, but most of my time right now has been spent making a cool realistic skull pendant for Benny.  These take a LONG time to put together and Benny’s been very patient.  I even screwed it up, cutting too much wax off the forehead in order to fit the symbol and had to re-build it.  (Thus two colors of wax….)

 

This is designed as one of those slider pendants where the chain runs right through the middle of it.  I’ve done a number of these and I think everyone knows I’m a big fan of this kind of mechanism.  It’s much more modern and less disco than a big roundish pendant hanging BELOW a chain.

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.

Cat’s Eye and other projects.

I hate Spring.

Yeah, I’m just putting that out there.  I hate warm weather, sunshine, bugs, and pollen – so as far as Spring is concerned, it can go screw.  What is it that Melville wrote in Moby Dick about how great Winter is?   Something about making one’s own spring in one’s own heart with one’s own coals.

Something like that.  Can’t find it.

Anyway, this is the time of year I just stay indoors.  Luckily I’ve had some cool projects to keep me occupied.

First is Dee’s ring.  Let’s start with a sketch:

It’s that cut and dry.  Pretty cool, right?  It’s basically a Little Voodoo skull ring all sugar’d up with some kind of bright yellow eye (we haven’t worked that out yet.  I’m suggesting Tiger’s Eye, but Dee thinks they suck, so we’ll see.)  Also put some ears and fangs on her for extra badassedness.

I went ahead and finished up the wax for this:

So what do you think?  The nose sucks, right?  Yeah, it does.  Dee hated the stupid nose and I don’t blame her.  i don’t know why I thought a protruding nose would look right.  I made an adjustment and it ended up looking much better.

This MF’er is ready for casting.  We’ll figure out those gemstones later.

Not to be outdone, I’ve got a great piece in the works for Peter.  A massive custom skull ring on a  Big Voodoo frame with a dimensional heart carved into the forehead and turquoise eyes.

We’re on this bad boy – wax is done and ready to cast.

It’s gonna look great, but this goddammed blue wax is too hard to photograph.  You can just make out the heart and the thorns.

I’ve got some new cool projects in the works like a silver skull pipe-lighter, some custom wedding bands, and a giant version of the King Skull with a bottom jaw.  Stay tuned to your custom skull ring channel.