Ok. Fine. I give in.

Lust wins out every time with me. Which should not come as a great crashing surprise to anyone.

I have a ring on order from Deadringer. Mark and Steve, the main men behind Deadringer, made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.

They don’t have a pic of exactly what I’m getting up on their site yet, but it’s basically a combination of the two rings pictured below. The ring itself is the classic skull (the one on the left), but with the ‘shadow finish’ from the super-high-end armageddon (The one on the right).

These rings are made custom, so the lead time was quoted at about two weeks for production, plus whatever it takes for shipping. These guys are way the fuck down in New Zealand, so this will have the distinction of being the best-traveled of my skull rings, at least until I myself get south of the equator again. My other two rings are made in the USA.

The thing I love about this particular ring is that it’s the most realistic skull ring I’ve ever seen, beating out even my clapton skull from Serious Silver. Steve Gillespie, the jeweler behind Deadringer, clearly sat down with a real skull, or at least an anatomically correct replica, and made a ring that re-created the shape almost exactly. I don’t think you’re ever going to find a better, more exact, real skull ring than this.

It’s wholly different animal than your classic rock ‘n roll skull ring, of which my favorite in the universe is the one made by my friend Tony Creed – my Elvis Lives skull. That’s a creature of rock n’ roll and horror comics, bikers and pirates, a thing born of artistic imagination.

The rock n’ roll skull ring has a vast range – most of it ugly, much of it stupid. The standouts though, Creed’s work and Crazy Pig, some of Bill Wall’s work, are a distillation of a Motorhead/biker aesthetic.

Different things. Different ends of an artistic spectrum. I love them both, the realistic skull and the rock ‘n roll skull. And I can’t wait to see this Deadringer piece.

Anyone read japanese?

I Want This.

Crazy Pig Designs finally updated their website. Which is good, it means there are a lot more/better pictures.

Alas, it’s a pain to navigate, and a pain to link to. Looks nice though.

For the full experience, as designed, go see www.crazypigdesigns.com/. If you don’t wanna wait for it, go direct to the the pictures.

I’m tellin’ ya, I gotta get me some CrazyPig. Soon as I can scrape together cash for a frivolous just-for-me purchase…

[made with ecto]

A reader named Slava, one of many who seem to wind up here because of a search on skull rings, pointed me to a site called Bill Wall Leather.

I curse Slava for doing this, because…

Well.

Want. Want. Really want. And more want.

Slava pointed me there to look at Bill’s skull rings, but I don’t really like the skulls much. They suffer from the classic ‘make the skull scary’ problem which is exactly what I don’t like in skull rings. They’re nicely done, but don’t particularly suit my aesthetic. But go, take a look at his site. Most excellent stuff.

There’s that skull ring that started me on the quest for a skull ring. The Clapton Skull ring.

[ edit ] – I’ve removed the link to the site (serious silver) because they’re criminals and crooks and will steal your money, do NOT order from them [ / edit ]

I talked to the makers a while back and they said they were out of business, or not taking orders, or something. I forget what. I was bummed.

So then I went on that obsessive hunt for a skull ring. Which lead me to this spectacular piece by Tony Creed, as well as a lot of other rings I want eventually.

But I was still bummed. That Clapton ring was pretty special — it looked like an actual skull, which was really unique. Maybe not as rock n’ roll as the rings from CrazyPig, sure, not as arty as the 8-ball skull (FateBall, I think they called it), and nowhere near the raw energy and nuttiness of Tony Creed.

And then, what do you know, I get mail from Lionrhod at Serious(asshole)Silver.com, and they’re not out of business at all. They had some sort of production or other business problems, I never got the details, but they’re taking orders again.

So I put my money down.

Now, they were not quick. It took about three weeks longer than I expected; I think they’re still having some trouble with production. But I got my ring tonight, and damn, is it pretty.

Now, it’s not my Tony Creed ring. I mean, Elvis Lives, baby. That’s made special, just for me. No ring will replace it. I can’t even say I’ll wear this one every day, it’s really heavy. But I’m pretty fucking pleased.

And I still want more. But then, I’m all about wanting more. Ask around.