Dia de la Abby #44: Shrunken Skeleton Earrings

These are inspired by anatomical skeleton and skull diagrams. The torso is inspired by a heavily corseted ribcage, which is similar to my own ribcage shape...only mine is natural.

I have lost my old pair of long skeleton earrings, so I decided to make some replacements, using shrink plastic. More commonly referred to as "Shrinky Dinks". I've worked with shrink plastic before, but this was different than past projects. There are a lot of pieces to drawn, shrink and attach, but it was worth it for a pair of great anatomical skeleton earrings. These are about 8 inches long, which was longer than planned, but they are fabulous. If you would like to make a pair of these, other jewelry, or scrap-booking charms using shrink plastic, see tutorial.


Every week in the 4.0 year, I will post my own Dia de la Abby posts as well as a tutorial with instructions on how I made my piece. Hopefully you feel inspired by my posts just as I was by Noah's Skull-A-Day 1.0 daily project. Need more of me than just a weekly dose, follow me on Twitter and/or Facebook. 

[Flashback Friday] #69. Art-O-Mat (Shrunken) Skulls

Welcome to another addition of Flashback Friday.** This year the guest editors, Citizen Agent, Tatman, and myself, Azurafae, are taking turns counting down our personal favorite 17 skulls from the Original 365.25 Year. So please join us as we visit the archives and add our additional commentary on some of the original pieces.

6. #69. Art-O-Mat (Shrunken) Skulls

I like the idea of being able to produce small pieces of art in a large quantity. If you look closely, no two skulls are alike. That means that he hand drew, cut and punched each one before shrinking. Shrink plastic is a relatively easy product to draw on. I've made many things with it. The shrinking part can be very tedious, because the plastic curls up as it heats and has a tendency to stick to it's self or another piece while shrinking. This is hard to fix. Making piece in this large amount takes a lot of time and patience. It's an inexpensive and useful way to promote yourself. It's neat to know that there are many people walking around NYC with a small piece of his art.

**Flashback Friday was a weekly countdown of the fan selected top 52 skulls of Skull-A-Day 1.o. Each week during year 3.0 The Skullmaster posted the original skull along with some additional commentary in order from lowest to highest rated, with the #1 skull appearing in the last week of year 3.0, all 52 can be found here.

69. (50) Art-O-Mat (Shrunken) Skulls

Sharpie Marker on Shrink Film [a.k.a. Shrinky Dinks] (edition of 50).

Custom Packaged as "Memento Mori" for the Art-o-Mat #1 of 50.

Today my task was to create an edition of 50 skulls to bring to the Art-O-Mat 10th Anniversary Celebration/Swap Meet next Saturday in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Art-O-Mats are recycled cigarette vending machines that have been converted to dispense art. The brainchild of N.C. artist Clark Whittington, there are now over 80 Art-O-Mats throughout the US and even a few overseas. If you're going to be in or near Winston-Salem on the 18th of August, stop by the event, which is free to the public, and will be held at SECCA from 1-4:30. This may be your only chance to get one of these limited edition beauties.

P.S. Thanks to Phil for reminding me of the awesome term "memento mori"!