Friday, November 30, 2007

180. Sand Skull 2

Hand Sculpted Sand (approx. 2ft x 2ft x 2ft). This was our last day in Hawii, so of course we spent time at the beach. This one was on the North Shore near Haleiwa on O'ahu, Hawaii. Second attempt of two as the sand was pretty dry, and I couldn't put much detail in it without it collapsing. I had dreams of making one of those giant sand sculptures you see in competitions, but I promised my friends I wouldn't spend all day making a skull!

For scale here's a shot of me working...

Guest Post #9

I'm on vacation, but don't worry I'm still making skulls while I'm away and I'll post them all after I return.

In the meantime please enjoy these skulls found by my friend Julien in Istanbul...






Thursday, November 29, 2007

179. Avocado Skull

Carved Local Organic Avocado. We bought this several days earlier at a great farmer's market in Kailua on O'ahu, Hawaii, but didn't get around to eating it before it got overripe.

Guest Post #8

I'm on vacation, but don't worry I'm still making skulls while I'm away and I'll post them all after I return.

In the meantime please enjoy these skulls found by my friend Julien in Istanbul...



Wednesday, November 28, 2007

178. Candy Cane Skull

Arranged Candy Canes. It was a rainy day all over O'ahu, so we spent the morning indoors. Our host was putting together some holiday cards with these candy canes so of course I had to interrupt the process to make a skull.

Guest Post #7

I'm on vacation, but don't worry I'm still making skulls while I'm away and I'll post them all after I return.

In the meantime please enjoy these skulls found by my friend Julien in Istanbul...


Tuesday, November 27, 2007

177. Lava Stone Skull

Arranged Coral on Volcanic Rock. This is a traditional game table in the Pu'uhonua o Honaunau (Place of Refuge) National Historical Park in Kona on the Big Island (Hawai'i), Hawaii.

There's actually a tradition of making graffiti on the Big Island by arranging white coral on black lava along the side of the road! Sadly I didn't have the time to try it out on a larger scale.

Guest Post #6

I'm on vacation, but don't worry I'm still making skulls while I'm away and I'll post them all after I return.

In the meantime please enjoy these skulls found by my friend Julien in Istanbul...



Monday, November 26, 2007

176. Toothpick Skull

Arranged Toothpicks. After a long day exploring Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park we had dinner at a nice restaurant in Kailua Kona on the Big Island (Hawai'i), Hawaii. The wait staff was kind enough to ignore my bizarre behavior.

Guest Post #5

I'm on vacation, but don't worry I'm still making skulls while I'm away and I'll post them all after I return.

In the meantime please enjoy these skulls found by my friend Julien in Istanbul...


Sunday, November 25, 2007

175. Flower Skull 2

Arranged Flowers (approx. 9in x 9in). I spotted these fallen flowers near a restaurant we were going to for lunch in Kailua on O'ahu, Hawaii. I left it for others to discover.

Guest Post #4

I'm on vacation, but don't worry I'm still making skulls while I'm away and I'll post them all after I return.

In the meantime please enjoy these skulls found by my friend Julien in Istanbul...


Saturday, November 24, 2007

174. (The) Coconut Skull (Doesn't Fall Far From The Tree.)

Ink on Coconut. I found this coconut on the beach the day before and set it up under a tree behind my friend's house early in the morning. I was going to try to carve it, but not having any tools with me, and not wanting to wake up my host to see if I could borrow something to use I started drawing on it and ended up liking the result. Since you're not allowed to bring back agricultural products from Hawaii to the mainland, I left this as a gift to my friends who kindly put us up for a week.

Guest Post #3

I'm on vacation, but don't worry I'm still making skulls while I'm away and I'll post them all after I return.

In the meantime please enjoy these skulls found by my friend Julien in Istanbul...

Friday, November 23, 2007

173. Sand Skull 1

Hand Sculpted Sand (approx. 3ft x 3ft). I made this on Bellows Beach in O'ahu, Hawaii and left if for others to discover.

To give you a sense of scale, here's my friend taking a picture...

Guest Post #2

I'm on vacation, but don't worry I'm still making skulls while I'm away and I'll post them all after I return.

In the meantime please enjoy these skulls found by my friend Julien in Istanbul...

Thursday, November 22, 2007

172. Paper Napkin Skull 2

Crumpled Paper Napkin. I spent all of Thanksgiving day traveling (about 20 hours total) and ate airport food for my meals. This napkin was used between flights in the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.

Guest Post #1

I'm on vacation, but don't worry I'm still making skulls while I'm away and I'll post them all after I return.

In the meantime please enjoy these skulls found by my friend Julien in Istanbul...



(Sorry, I has some trouble accessing the blog , yesterday! So, two posts for today! woo! -m)

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Skull-A-Day on Vacation (but still making skulls!)

Hey folks, I'm going on vacation tomorrow (Thursday the 21st) and will be away from my computer for 9 days! Don't worry I will still be making skulls every day, but I won't be able to post them until I return.

That said I don't want to deprive you of your daily dose of skulls so I have prepared some guest skulls that will be posted daily by my sister (a big thanks to her for agreeing to blog-sit!). They were photographed by my friend Julien in Istanbul, who went a bit skull-crazy in the last few weeks and found quite a number of them!

See you on December 1st with 9 vacation skulls!
Care to guess where I'm going?

171. Finger Print Skull


Ink on Finger Monoprint. This was one of about 18 attempts. Each was made by painting ink directly on my finger tip with a small brush and then quickly tapping my finger on a piece paper. Usually the 2nd or 3rd tap produced the best line detail.

Here's what it looks like closer to life size...

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

170. Skullghetti & Sauce

Arranged Organic Spaghetti and Sauce.

Monday, November 19, 2007

169. Found Skull #4: Apartment Grayskull


My friend Russ reminded me a while back about this apartment building in town that has a strikingly skull-like exterior which he liks to call "Castle Grayskull". Below my interpretation in ink which I digitally colored...

Sunday, November 18, 2007

168. (Escape To) Skull Mountain

Papier-mâché and Mixed-Media (approx. 11" x 5" x 8").

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Braincase XVIII

Another superb collection of international submissions!...
(received 10/15 - 10/21)

John from Japan shared these awesome custom rings from his store Speedway!
















My friend Adrien was the first to point out the "beautiful and ridiculously expensive" Mori Ex Cacao chocolates from Valerie Confections! (Thanks to Yayo, Grace, Brad, and Jessica for letting me know about this one as well)












Nicole, a baker in NYC, made this fantastic apple cranberry pie in honor of Skull-A-Day (I wish was able to have a slice.)!
















Yayo shared Jennifer Lew's extra cute "Bear Skull"!
















Leiarenee shared the work of Atalier Van Lieshout, including this "Wellness Skull" which features a relaxing bath inside!










Hannah spotted ths great ring by MikeandMary over at Etsy!














Monster Maniac found this classic death's head moth at Neatorama







and a nifty poster by Kipling West













as well as this scary spider by her friend.















Moose spotted this lovely piece by Wolfe Lenkiewicz.











And also this tattoo and simulacra via Webpark.ru.



















As well as these delicious looking white chocolate skulls by Crafty Chica at MentalFloss.














Arbyn Incubus noticed this unintentional skull on "The Totally Rad Show".










Jerry got this terrific tattoo, designed by Laura Walker, and inked at Yankee Tattoo in Dundee, Scotland.












Mark shot this great photo of a piece of jewelry by William Llewellyn Griffiths.









Philip found this excellent recipe for "Skull Crusher Chocolates" at Cut Out and Keep and a creepy skull hologram illusion at Instructables.















Jenny Campbell discovered this cool unintentional(?) skull while scanning and archiving images for the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore.







Olaf Hansel in Hamburg, Germany, made this terrific paint by numbers [I got this a month ago and totally forgot about it until after I'd made my own paint by numbers yesterday, maybe I was subconsciously inspired!].












André Brocatus pointed out a whole bunch of excellent skulls he posted on his blog, including this screen capture from Kylie Minogue's recent video, which features a skull microphone (thanks to Joran for pointing this one out as well)!



He also found Ricky Swallow's iMan,









Uneetee's Arrrgyle Shirt,









Christoph Steinmeyer's Disco Inferno,












Hyun Koolee's Anas Animatas D,












and Robert Lazzarini's distorted sculptures [which I've seen in person and they really do look like this!].











Jesse made an even more headache inducing version of the Skull-A-Day desktop wallpaper!









Alan shot these lovely sugar skulls in Mexico City.













B13 discovered this skull face hiding in an underpass he drives through every day.











Chris and his friend made this nifty headhunter pole.










Jason Gaver spotted these cute kids' gloves in Spokane, WA.













Joe M. Kniss, a scientific visualization researcher, made these awesome volume renderings of the "Visible Male" from the Visible Human Project sponsored by the NIH while a graduate student at the University of Utah.















Octochan points out this source for terrific life sized cast chocolate skulls!









Carl from Victoria, TX found this spiffy DIY paper airplane at Instructables!









Mike Castello showed off his cool illustration work!






Vampiress found this astounding art car from Burning Man 2002!












Drew reminds us that there are plenty of nice skull/skeleton related items for sale at the Evolution Store in New York City.








Neil Thomson discovered this chair lurking outside of the Bulington Club in London.









Leah A. Allen made this excellent piece out of varnished mulberry paper stuffed with cotton!










Nick Jessen of Bethesda, MD made this lovely sketch!










Raphael found this awesome skull in the bathroom of the Thunderbird Lounge in St. Etienne, France!












Ben Wheeler made this superb gear shift knob while working for an automotive accessories store!















Ronnie did a great job making a skull illustration for every day in October! See them all on his blog here.












DILLIGAF found these happy graffiti skulls in Austin, TX.













Pablozeta made this excellent psychedelic image!













Thanks again everyone!

Submit your own found/made skulls at the address in the upper right-hand corner of the site. Please be patient it will take around 4-6 weeks for new submissions to be posted. Be sure to include what name and link you would like included and if you found it online a link to the source as well. Also if you're sending tattoos be sure to include the artist's name and location, so we can give them proper credit. I won't repost items I've received before so be sure to check previous Braincase posts.

Don't forget you can see your items in the sidebar right away if you post them to Flickr and include the tag "skulladay".