Boss Arrives

It’s been a looooong road for Jonathan, but I’ve finally finished his Boss Voodoo.

This is the mother of all skull rings.  The f’king thing is well over 1.75 inches tall and absolutely massive.  Jonathan’s been a great client.  His patience has paid off big time.

 

 

Those are massive simulated emerald eyes and 14K Gold teeth.  The rest?  Solid sterling.

 

 

 

 

I’ve got to throw a huge thanks at Izzy and Chuck over at Atlanta Diamond Design who helped me out with their wicked laser solder gear and set those tiny little gold teeth and those delicate gemstone eyes.

More to come!  I’ve got a Masonic ring that’s going to blow your shit back.

Boss of Bosses

Bunch of stuff coming off my bench this week.  A lot of classic skull rings and a few custom pieces.   First up is a custom Big Voodoo for Joe’s boss:

 

I ended up with a real gnarly grayish gunmetaly finish on this one.  Very cool.

 

Also had two new Hellions and a Boss Voodoo in progress, minus some gold teeth, blackening, and some setting work on those gemstones.

I’ve got a hell of a cool King Skull on order for Joe, who actually commissioned that Boss of Bosses Big Voodoo for his….boss….  Joe was a sea-going Marine and I’m jacked to start this King Skull for him.   Payment just cleared so I’ll be posting some sketches soon.

Turquoise and Zen

Got a new Buddhist ring in the works for Tim.   Fleshing out the wax based on a stone he selected.  Very cool-looking turquoise actually.

 

That’s a real pale stone with some badass black spiderwebbing in it.

When I do a ring like this, the entire thing is built around the stone itself, so each one is made from scratch and can only be set with that exact stone.

 

 

You can see I’m starting to block out a Buddhist wheel on the shank.  We have a lot of custom carving to do, so stay tuned.

Jason over at Custom Mala Shop has also just sold two more pieces featuring my custom silver skull and enso.  His work is just amazing.

 

I took in a few more horror films while working on a new batch of rings.  Evil Dead 1 and 2, Night Wish, Brain Dead, and Nightmare on Elm Street.  I also saw Goolies, which I really need to write about at length when I have time.  Gotta keep on truckin’ here and try to get this new batch of Hellions finished.  Also getting close on Jonathan’s Boss Voodoo.

More soon!

Hellions have arrived

Finished up the first batch of Hellions rings this weekend.  I owe you guys some better photos, but here’s what I have so far.

 

 

 

These guys have been a long time in the making and I think we’ve definitely hit ’em on the head.  They’re very raw and expressive – anything but sleek.   Everything I like about a skull ring.  Gold cigars, simulated ruby eyes and black onyx goggles.  Comfortable to wear too, despite being pretty large.  I did my best to balance the ring out and keep the shank soft and round inside.

Also finished the wax for Jonathan’s boss voodoo.  Check ‘er out.  Big lab emeralds in the eyes and all kinds of mass on the ring itself.  Gonna be HEAVY.

 

 

 

Boss Voodwho?

 

 

 

 

 

So obviously this f’ker is HUGE.  That’s the way Jon wants it.  I think this wax is complete, pending Jon’s final notes.  These bad boys take such a long time to make, but that’s why they are a luxury item.  We still have a ways to go, actually.  Still have to set black onyx in the eyes and make some gold teeth.  Gonna be one badass skull ring.  More to come!

Boss evolving

Based on Jonathan’s feedback, I’ve started blocking out the BOSS.

    

 

This is a long process, obviously.  The ring is massive – a size 14 – so we’re having to go a little bit wider with the face in order to pull it off.  You can see how it fits on  my finger thus far:

Looking massive, right?  The challenge is to keep this bad boy comfortable while keeping the shank as tall as possible.

You can see that the side view below isn’t quite working yet:

Why not?  Well mostly its the bottom jaw line.  Originally Jonathan had requested that it taper in a very similar way to the upper jaw.  At this point, though, you can see that it kind of destroys the “Jawness” of the piece.   The forehead and nose are also looking a little flat right now.

I’ll check in with the client and see what he thinks.  More to come. I’ve got a bit group of skull rings in the tumbler – a few nearly ready to ship.  Big update soon.

Like a Boss

Think we’re closing in on a final design for Jonathan’s Boss Voodoo.

Client’s been great with his feedback thus far so I’ve really had a lot to work with.  I’ve done a new run of sketches with a more balanced jaw-to-forehead ratio.  I’ve also started incorporating some secondary carving around the main image of the Psi.

That Psi is actually going to stand out as a dimensional object, so even though we’re adding some additional carving, it shouldn’t get swallowed up by all of the line.  We were torn between an organic, swirly type of ornamentation or a more Greek-like geometric form.  I’ve tried to combine the two here.

I really like the small mustache.  We’ll see if that makes it to the final design.  I think most skull rings are improved by mustaches.

What makes this even more interesting is that I’m talking to the client about adding gold pupils to the black onyx eyes.   I did another rough sketch that shows what I’m talking about.

 

This is the biggest and most elaborate skull ring I offer.  You can’t tell from the drawings, of course, but this f’ker is going to cover the entire first segment of the finger.  Jonathan, I hope your’e okay with that!  If not, let me know because the next step is wax-carving.

Jonathan’s Boss

I’ve got a Boss Voodoo in the works for Jonathan.  This is the mother of all skull rings.  They are HUGE, completely custom made, and usually have gold teeth and gemstone eyes.

 

 

Again, I don’t do hollow skull rings, so you can imagine how solid and satisfying that bad-boy is to wear.

There are a lot of moving parts with rings like this.  We have SO many details to go over.  Basically what Jonathan wants is a BIG ring with a big thick shank.

The only thing we’ve discussed thus far is the incorporation of the Psi, the symbol for psychiatric study.

 

Cool thing about an image like this: it happens to be shaped very much like the center-line and forehead of a skull.  Preliminary sketches were easy:

 

Now this image uses the Psi in a very dominant way.  It completely defines the planes of the forehead and nose and doesn’t leave much room for a bottom jaw.

Jonathan’s feedback?

“That looks like ass.”

Well perhaps not that terse, but basically he said he digs the Psi, but wants it to be a little more conformed to the forehead area.  He also really wants a bottom jaw.  Here’s another stab at this:

 

That side-view drawing looks kinda funky due to foreshortening.  You’d think I’d be able to take a straight-on photograph.

What does the ring look like now?  A big block of wax.  No reason to rush a piece like this.  We’re going to do it just right.