
In Style Weekly
Skull-A-Day Featured in Richmond's Style Weekly for Wednesday, May 28, 2008!
Wednesday, May 28, 2008 issue

In Style Weekly
Skull-A-Day Featured in Richmond's Style Weekly for Wednesday, May 28, 2008!

Cooked Pretzel (5.5in x 6in [14cm x 15cm]). One continuous piece of dough, fourth attempt of four. Thanks to my friend Philip for suggesting this one including the name! And a huge thanks to my friend Carra for helping with all the prep work for this The recipe came from HERE and it really does taste like the real thing (plus it's vegan if you use margarine! Though I added a coating of egg white just to make it darker/shinier in the photo, but it's not necessary for flavor).
Arranged Bodies. Thanks to my friends Christi & Shelia for being my models. While I was inspired by the classic Dali image, I didn't want to recreate it, but rather develop something original. I had actually scheduled four models for this morning's shoot, but two didn't show up, so I had to make this image in two shots (top and bottom) with no way to confirm how they would line up until I got home and could combine them in Photoshop! Thanks also to the folks at Art6 Gallery for allowing me to use their space for this shot.
Another interesting one from my friend Julien in Istanbul. He says, "I just bought this weekly satirical 'paper' with this skull on the front page. It's called 'uykusuz' meaning 'sleepless'. It's a liberal paper and they criticize a lot the actual government. You know, the government recently voted a law permitting the wearing of the [head] scarf inside University campuses. So some young women started to attend classes with their scarf. The front page here says : 'Beware ! There are fascists on the campus'"
Moose found this nifty T-shirt on Mech Bot!
Karl pointed out this fun Thinkin' Lincoln comic with a skull punchline!
Leo Bella spotted this Skull-y parking deck!
Jamie's cool tattoo was done by Chris Culverhouse at Images In Ink in Odenville, Alabama!
Nick Sloff discovered a skull in Boo Berry Cereal! And also shared an image of a carved staff he picked up on vacation a few years ago.
Kurt Marquart introduced me to his Girl Monsters (several of which sport cute skull accessories). In fact Abby Cadaver and Betty Bones are already Skull-A-Day fans!
Peter Dowker from Quebec, Canada, showed off this lovely piece!
Matlock shared this incredible oyster simulacra from his friend Sparxxx's Myspace page.
Arranged Bark on Trees (Big!). Thanks to my cousins who offered me access to the trees in their yard. This was made by marking out a skull in perspective first and then chopping and breaking away the bark along the lines (except for the white tree, which I had to add bark to). The image is really only visible from one vantage point. Here's what it looks like standing to the right...
Arranged Scooters and Scooter Parts (Big!). You would think that I have some kind of obsession since this is yet another scooter related skull, but really it's just cus my friends Dave and Chelsea keep inviting me back to Scoot Richmond to play! Tonight was actually a "Halloween in May" event at the store so it made sense that I make a skull as part of it. After moving the bikes around and getting my shot, I got to actually drive a scooter for the first time! Afterwards everyone watched Shaun of The Dead projected on a wall in the parking lot, so quite a good night all around.

Henna on Skin. Thanks to my assistant Kristin for volunteering for this one! I designed the skull in advance and then basically free-fhanded the rest of it. I've never done a henna design before so this was definitely a challenge (kudos to the folks who do this professionally)! Once it's set I'll take another photo with the paste wiped off.
Molded Tissue Paper (approx. 12in x 8in [30cm x 20cm]) Thanks to my friend Shelia for helping me make a plaster mold and teaching me this technique. I was hoping to make a mold earlier in this project so that I could use it for some other materials, but I just never got around to it. It took several tries to figure out how best get the layers from sticking to the mold (petroleum jelly worked best), this was the fourth attempt. I'll probably make more at some point (when I'm in less of a rush to get it done!).

Sushi Roll (Rice, Nori, Bell Pepper, Carrots) (approx. 4in x 3in [10cm x 8cm]). Thanks to the fine folks at Sticky To GoGo (the takeout wing of popular local restaurant Sticky Rice) for letting me invade their kitchen to make this one. I don't expect they'll add this to their menu any time soon though, since it took a few hours to make! Special thanks to Ross for helping set this up and Oura for helping with the prep work. They actually made their own skulls while I was at work on mine (Oura's is at the top right, Ross made the rest):
Hey folks, just a reminder that I'm giving away sets of 5 "I [heart] Skulls" stickers (shown above) to the first 10 people that send me their version of (or a variation on) the (Band of The) Hand Skull! These are high quality, 5in x 1.5in [12.7cm x 3.8cm], non-vinyl plastic stickers that are currently not for sale anywhere, so don't delay! Be sure to post the photo to Flickr with the tags "skulladay" and "handskull" and also send it to me attached in an e-mail as well. Good luck!