Wax and Silver

Wow, I got a whole bunch of waxes done thanks to my pal Adam, who helped me cast all these f’kers from my master molds.  I’ve had some patient clients waiting for Big Voodoos and now I can finally start carving on these base casts into voodoo magic.

 

What have I been doing in the meantime?  Finishing up a few King Skulls, a Little Voodoo, a few custom orders, and Sue’s mega mystery cave.

 

That’s James’ “Memento Mori” King Skull.  All done and ready to ship.  Skull ring in-bound.

Then we have Chuck’s badass Little Voodoo.

 

 

Normally not fancy enough for me to blog about, but I just don’t get enough engraving requests on these LVDs and I thought I’d show one off.

Big news is that Sue’s Mega Myster is almost finished.

 

BIG and HEAVY.  Sue must be strong as hell because this thing weights like 6 pounds.

 

We’re not quite done with this, though.  We’ve got some special work to do in the eyesockets.  Something kind of subtle and cool.  We’ll get back to that.

In the meantime, happy new year to all of you battlecats.  I’m planning (still) on a few new base rings this year, so stay tuned.

 

Life’s a Mystery

I might be just about finished with Sue’s mega-Mystery Cave.  This has been an awesome project.  Sue is one of those special clients who must come from some kind of a design background because her feedback has been spot-on throughout the entire process.

 

 

This German symbol has now been set inside of a circular border roughly the same shape as the eyes, but not inset so the ring maintains its ‘skullness.’   We’re left with one hell of a skull ring here.  It’s big too.  It has clean lines and a subtle modern suggestion of a sugar skull, but without the sugar.  Seems kinda impossible, but with the clean lines of the eyes and the hear-shaped nose, it works.

 

 

I think I’ve harped on this before, but just because a design is simple, doesn’t mean it’s easy to pull off.  Simplicity in form just means we’re working on a much more subtle level.   When you’re working on a hyper-detailed skull ring with all kinds of horns and cracks and anatomy, it’s easier to pull off something dynamic.  When it’s a series of circles and cubes, shit gets real.

Sue, drop me a line and let me know if we’re done or if we should try anything else.

 

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.

 

 

 

 

Joe’s Wheel of Chaos and more chaos

 

Holiday rush is on.  Let’s start with some new pics of Tim’s turquoise OM ring.

 

That’s a Buddhist knot on the other side of the shank.  This was the kind of piece that I immediately wanted to make for myself.  It’s heavy, well-balanced, and finished with brushed metal.

 

But that isn’t all.  I’ve also been hacking away at two rings for Joe, a sea-going Marine.  This bad boy was created in my standard sterling silver, but finished with a brand new darkmetal.  It looks like hematite.  Lighter and a bit more hi-polished than my gunmetal, I’m going to be offering this now as a finish option.

 

That’s a wheel of chaos formed into a sort of compass on the forehead.

 

 

Those are old-school anchors on the side and it reads BLBS on the back of the shank for “By Land By Sea.”  Now Joe hasn’t approved this finish yet, so we may be trying something a bit different on her after he gets a chance to check it out.

Here’s his second ring:

Mystery Cave, baby.   One of my favorite rings.

Speaking of Mystery Caves…….

I’m making a new lower-jawed mystery cave for Sue.  She’s already an owner of one of my Little Voodoos and she’s come back with an awesome idea for a ring.  Here’s the wax in progress.

I’m shaping that nose into a little heart.  We’re going to incoorporate some very strong sugar skull imagery into it without breaking up the clean lines of the skull.  Sue, drop me a line and let me know how we’re doing here.