A little bit of caveman, a little bit of rock and roll…..

Yes, after a whole lotta sculpting and some exceptionally difficult stone setting for some reason, I’ve finally finished Marty’s Austral and the rock ‘n roll ring for James.

This is good, because I’m WAY behind on some waxes I’m supposed to be working on.

Let’s get to it, because I have to get back to work.  Here are some shots from Jame’s rock ring.

 

 

Think it turned out great.  The mic texture on the side is a little tough to photograph, but you can see it peaking from behind the orbital bone of the skull.  I’m shipping this one out in the AM.

Aaaand, here’s the austral.

 

 

 

 

This f’ker is so comfortable to wear (on my pinky) which is crazy because it really looks heavy.  Well, it is heavy….but I kept the shank nice and thick with a good solid bevel so it’s well-balanced.

Now I have some waxes coming out too, so stay tuned for those.  I’m hoping to make another post in the next two days.  See you on Wednesday.

Austro End?

 

 

Yep, this might be it.  Think I’ve finally finished this austro skull ring.  Just need some final input from Marty.

 

 

 

 

Austra-logy

Okay, I’m back and once again covered in powdered wax, polishing compound and silver.

Made a big dent in the Austro – you can see the anatomy starting to materialize.

 

 

I’ve got the eye holes drilled in along with the nose.  Next step was defining the jaw and the connective bones.

 

 

   

 

 

It looks like we’re close, but we actually still have a long way to go.  Setting up the teeth is next.  We’ll block in some big gnarly caveman teeth and then use the scale of the choppers to finish up the jaw and cheekbones.  Most of my skull rings are so forehead dominant….it’s been crazy to work on one that has so much “jaw” to it.

Speaking of foreheads, I’ve finished up our guitar pick for James’ Big Voodoo complete with treble clef.

 

So that leaves the sides of the ring.  We’re going to try using the mic texture as planned.  This is just the marker, which looks a little funny in silver.  You have to try to imagine these lines clean and recessed.

 

I gotta say both of these rings are going to be hard to part with.  This austro skull might be something I have to offer on my site.  The original ring you see here is just for Marty, but I might do a smaller, slightly different version for sale as well.

So stay tuned through the new year.  I’ve got all kinds of projects on the burner – maybe too many.

Valentine’s Day ordering ends on January 15th, so make sure you get your orders in ahead of time!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rock and Roll and a Caveman

I’ve started a new Big Voodoo for James.  James is a guitarist and we’re going to focus on rock and roll for this ring.

Nothing better than setting turquoise into a skull’s eyes.  We’re going to do big 8mm stones with some bitchin’ spiderweb pattern set into the eyes of this skull, which have been rounded out.

 

We’ve put circles around the eyes as a subtle nudge towards the center of a guitar.

We’re also using a guitar pick shape on the forehead along with a treble clef.  I’m hoping James can take a look at this markered-up wax and let me know if we’re close.  We’ll deal with the sides of the skull ring next.  Thinking about doing a pattern around the side of the shank that resembles a Shure Microphone.

Also put some more hours into the Austro skull.   More and more, you can see that we’re looking a lot like those photo references.  That jaw is HUGE.

australopithecus

Say what?

For those of you who aren’t evolutionary biologists, the australopithecus is basically this:

When I was a kid, I had nightmarish images in my head of this thing just running at me screaming.

So now, thanks to Marty, I get to carve a australopithecus skull ring.  We’re going to use a lot of photo reference here . This really isn’t a shape I’m familiar with, so I might fail gloriously.

 

You can see that the jaw is massive, but deceptively narrow.  The eyes and nose are kind of on the same plane and the head is very very small.  All in all, not a good-looking dude.   Remind you of anyone?

Yeah.  Nothing fucking terrifying about THAT.  Spend too much time in an isolation tank and I’m pretty sure you turn into one of these things.

I started the wax over the weekend and have just now gotten it to where it’s not just a blob.  You can see that I’ve started working on this the way any sculptor tackles a foreign shape: by working on the major planes first.

I began with the side profile and then started cutting in angles based on all of the photo reference I was able to collect.

Not braggin’, but if you look at the pictures of the skull, you’ll see I’ve pretty much nailed the profile and am very close to finishing the front view.

Although we still have a very long way to go, getting to this stage is actually a huge weight off of my shoulders.  See, we’re not just dealing with a sculpture here.  What we’re dealing with is an intersection between the complex diagonals of the skull and the rigid parallel lines of the inner shank.  If they don’t mesh, they don’t mesh and there’s not much you can do about it.  Sure, I’ll have plenty of opportunities to F this up on a spectacular level, but so far we’re doing just fine.

On a sadder note, I’m sold out of Big Voodoos.  Just sold the last 2 today.  I’m going to cast more, but it won’t be until after the Xmas break.

Stay tuned.

Back in the USA and carving my balls off……

Where do I begin?

I was in Hong Kong again- a city I just fucking love.  A little business, mostly pleasure.  I was able to stay on top of client work while I was away, but needless to say getting back to the shop was a necessity and I’m now almost buried in silver, wax, and polishing compound.  That shot above is me at my new favorite Russian joint in HK.  Place is run by Ivan.  Awesome.  Ivan kept us thick in vodka and various delicious Russian fare for several nights.

We ended up doing shots with Ivan in his walk-in freezer.   This is basically how I do Hong Kong whenever I’m out there.   Great people, great food, and places right out of Blade Runner where they serve steamed fish and mainland beer underneath a canopy of neon and steam vents.

 

I’ve had some great projects in the works that I just haven’t had time to post about.  I’m hacking away at waxes as fast as humanly possible and the shit is EVERYWHERE . Wax dust in my clothes, my nose, my food, my hair….freakin’ everywhere.

Some cool pieces too.  For example, we haven’t talked about Sue.  Sue has ordered a mega-mystery cave.  What is that, you ask?  It’s a giant Mystery Cave with a super-thick shank and a heart-shaped nose.

This project is stil underway, but you can see the progress above from a block of wax.  The result is a big gob of silver roughly 3/4 larger than the standard Mystery Cave.  I’m still working on graphics on the forehead.

That image is going to end up being a German Eszett like this:

I’m throwing these shots up to get some feedback, so Sue- let me know what you think.

I’m also working on a series of King Skulls.  The one below is for James.  We’ve got “Memento Mori” on the forehead along with a crossed set of bones.

This is good news for James since his wax is finished, but might be bad news for everyone else because I literally have 2 King waxes left (which will likely be sold in the next day or two.)  So that leaves a big empty wooden drawer where my waxes used to be.  Obviously I have a mould and can run more wax duplicates of the base template for this ring, but at the same time I’m considering terminating the line and starting a new master wax of a second series of skull rings.

Same with the Big Voodoo and Little Voodoo.   Wouldn’t it be cool to know that each version of these rings is a limited run?   That way if you own a 1st generation King Skull, you’re even MORE of a badass than you thought when you first put it on.  The second version wouldn’t be BETTER or WORSE, it would just be a little different.

Speaking of different…….

We’re making that bad boy for a client named Marty.  It’s a one-off, so we’ll be starting from a slab of wax.  Can’t wait to see how this turns out.