[BONUS] Skull In Use: Happy Valentine's Day

Amanda Hicks says, "I created a Valentine's day wreath to show my love of skulls. Some of the images are from you Noah, and some are from Rich's flicker page, which I saw posted on Skull-a-Day. I asked Rich if I could use and post his images, and he said it was fine. I found some others by just surfing the net. I made the images into beads by glazing them onto flat bottom glass beads, then attached them to the frame. I also added the black flowers to make it pop a little more. I hope you like it. Happy Valentine's Day."

Detail:

Sunday Simulacra - Version 3.37

Today is a chance to experience
Skull on the Rocks...

Nastya says: “Hi! I visited Irkutsk, Russia. At Baikal Lake there is giant junkyard in the forest on Olkhon Island . On the coast of the Lake, near the popular place on the island, is this stone .”

Gustavo Jaramillo wrote: “This picture was taken in Bogotá. Colombia, in the botanic garden. [Since I found out about the site,] I've been looking for skull-like shapes in the city. This is a kind of alien skull!”


Pat in Red Hill, PA told us: “The other night at dinner I peered into my glass to see this. No rearrangement whatsoever. Somewhat of a natural skull.”


C. Diamnond says:

From Red Hill, PA to Russia with love, and that love is simulacra. Thank you all for submitting your finds.

Keep sending those pictures in to our submissions address. Just keep in mind that since we only post simulacra once a week it might take a little longer than normal for it to be posted.

Glow In The Dark Skulls

These fun glow in the dark skulls come to us from Selina Shehan. She writes, "I discovered your Skull a Day site about a year ago and loved it...then I forgot all about it until I started making skulls a few months ago...and now I love it all over again and would like to submit my stuff. I make glow-in-the-dark and blacklight responsive jewelry out of epoxy resin with glitter and candy inclusions."





These are totally cool and fun looking skulls. Plus, I love the fact that they are handmade. Thanks for taking the time to do them right and for sharing them. You can find more skull jewelry at her website.

[Flashback Friday] 290. Obsessive Compulsive Skull

Flashback Friday is a weekly countdown of the fan selected top 52 skulls of Skull-A-Day 1.0. Each week I'll be posting an 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 of the project...

#17: 290. Obsessive Compulsive Skull

This is actually the style my doodles tend to take when I'm unconsciously scribbling on a piece of paper, though admittedly I'd never made one this extensive or in a specific shape before!

And yes, this is just one line. Can you find the beginning and end points?

Speed of Light Skull

Aaron, from Orange, CA wrote: “Here ya go! I drew this skull with a flashlight using an extended exposure with my camera. ”

Carol Anne C says:

Such an excellent piece of work you have here. I like that we are able to see you in the picture, it gives this such an eerie feeling like you have finally captured that poltergeist on film. We know from the Skullmaster’s 66. Sparkler Skull that it took many more than one attempt to capture a perfect shot. Out of curiosity how many attempts did it take you? No matter how many, Thank You for submitting a photo of your effort to us.

Skull-A-Day on Tour: Charlottesville, VA

I'm going to be giving a lecture & workshop about the Skull-A-Day project and my own design & consulting firm Another Limited Rebellion at Piedmont Virginia Community College this coming Wednesday, February 17th at 6pm. It's free and open to the public! If you're in the Charlottesville, VA area I hope you'll stop by and say hi.

PVCC campus
Black Box Theatre
V. Earl Dickinson Building
More info: 434.961.5362
Or go HERE for maps of the campus.

Pencil Skull

This beautiful pencil drawing comes from a good friend of mine in the Chicago area, Lisa Arledge.



Lisa has a great touch with the pencil as well as the paint brush. She also makes a great effort to touch her community with her website www.paintingforgood.net. Lisa donates a portion of every sale to local charities, thus keeping her own community looking as beautiful as her art. Thanks, Lisa, for sharing with us and your neighbors!

[BONUS] Acorn Skull in Use

Tammie Weigl and her tattoo artist Gio Weld were so by inspired Skull-A-Day that they decided to include my Acorn Skull in her new tattoo!

Skull Pendants

Susan, “Polkadotmagpie”, from New Mexico told us: “Sterling skull pendants with vintage glass flower beads. The skull is my design, cast, and hand finished to a high polish.”



Red Rouge C says:

You were able to capture some great detail with these castings. The beaded accents are a great touch to soften the cold metal skull. Thank you for your submission.

Tuesdays With Tatman #36

With Valentine's Day closing in I wanted to express my adoration for all of our readers who make Skull-A-Day what it is. So today I give you my (candy)heart(skull).



All together it's 479 candy hearts. I remember these chalky candies from childhood featuring terms of affection such as "Love U", Be Mine", and the fatal attraction favorite "Crazy 4 U". They've done a bit of updating to be hip to the new trends by including "Text Me", "Tweet Me", and the egotistical best "Adore Me". It was good to see an inspirational message that has become my new personal favorite "Dream Big".

Each Tuesday in the 3.0 year will bring a new Tuesday With Tatman. As a tribute to the Skull Master's astounding feat let's all get creative and try something new(and hopefully skull related).

Gearhead Tattoo Skull

Tattoo artist Timm McKinney of Maya Tattoo is back with another skull that's been inked into flesh. He tells us, "I did this piece the other day on a walk in customer that just wanted a 'gear head' tattoo, and 4 hours later walla! hope you guys enjoy."



I love to see skull tattoos and I really like your style, Timm. This makes a great match to the heart/skull you recently sent us. Keep up the great work!

C-Rations: 0C100100

This week’s offering is a Calculation.


“Once Every C” 7" X 13" 20 skulls cut from found recycled cardboard with black marker

Gregorian C says:

I enjoy calendar systems. It brings me great pleasure when a day is not just another day, but one that has a quirky bonus to it. It was another one of those quirky days. Days like this only come around once in a lifetime so why not take advantage of them while they are here.

Remember each Monday during the 3.0 year I am posting an original skull design. My weekly offerings are nothing compared to the one-a-day massive project done by the Skullmaster in 1.0, but hopefully you will find some nourishment in these weekly offerings.

Need more nourishment? You can always Friend or Follow.

Skulls with Magnetic Properties

Natty from St. Petersburg, Florida painted these skull magnets.

Detail

Metal Plate C says:

These skulls are incredible. You have really captured the look of traditional Día de los Muertos skulls. I am also reminded of the red pottery that is often found in Latin America. Thank you for submitting your work. I enjoyed checking out your site at the link above and wish you continued success with your upcycled artwork.

[BONUS] The Gift of Skulls - Twins

I recently had a meeting with a friend of mine and his two lovely 6 year-old twin daughters Gracie and Lotti joined us. They were drawing up a storm the entire time so of course I asked them to make some pictures of skulls and skeletons for me. They graciously obliged and even gave me the drawings to keep when they were done! I love how they each had their own unique take on the skull image...

Skulls by Gracie

 Skeleton by Lotti

Thanks again Lotti & Gracie!

Sunday Simulacra - Version 3.36

The skull hunters are on the loose out there. Here's more of you with your skull eyes open....

President Wishnack satisfies his sweet tooth with this submission. "Someone informed me that you can get a free scoop of Ben & Jerry's if you join their "Chunk Spelunker" group online. I'm a sucker for free ice cream, so I did it... only to find a skull hiding out in my Oatmeal Cookie Chunk!"



Plus, he gets a daily look at how skull bloggers used to do it in the old days.




Finally, Babette submitted what has to be one of the best, if not one of the creepiest simulacra yet. She writes, "I was preparing to cook some chicken legs, and that little skull face was staring at me from the marinade bag, so of course I had to take pictures."



Of course you did, just like Shawn had to gross us out with his chicken neck also. Creeeepy!

Thanks to everyone for keeping your skull eyes open. Keep those submissions coming in to the submissions page and we'll keep getting them posted.

Spoon Pendant Skulls

Dauvit Alexander was referred to Skull-A-Day by an obviously great friend, and was encouraged to submit these lovely skull spoon pendants.



The ornateness of these make for wonderful pendants. The one with the gem appears to be a spoon of royalty. Perhaps a story of rags to riches; straight from the silverware drawer to the jewelry box. Thanks for sending them in, Dauvit.

Skully Bear

Owner of Mutz's Tootsz in Wisconsin, artist Amy Thornton, created this skully teddy bear. She told us: “Bear Bones is made of mohair & felted woolfelt.”

Detail

Hibernating C says:

Since becoming an editor I have viewed the full spectrum of skulls from symbolic silhouettes to some more macabre,and it is nice to see one that reminds us that skulls don't always need to be scary. I understand this artistic piece is not intended as a toy, but I do know a youngster that would really love this. Thank you for submitting this wonderful piece.

[Flashback Friday] 310. Googly Eye Skull

Flashback Friday is a weekly countdown of the fan selected top 52 skulls of Skull-A-Day 1.0. Each week I'll be posting an 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 of the project...

#18: 310. Googly Eye Skull

This was one of those skulls that came about because I was scouring the craft store for materials to work with and was on the lookout for large quantities of small objects that were inexpensive. I first made it without eyes in the sockets (which you can see on the original post), but clearly it cried out for its own googly eyes!

Skull-A-Day Press: Design Play

Three of my images appear in the new book Design Play from Hong Kong's Victionary. The book is a collection of clever and playful design solutions and a section of it is devoted to their 100 favorite photos of real-life visual illusions...

Skelecopter

Today's skull comes from the amazingly talented Don Stewart of Birmingham, Alabama. His "skelecopter" looks like something that M*A*S*H doctors might have recognized during one war or another.



If you like the collaboration of bones to make a helicopter then you should visit his website. He does incredible composite drawings that I highly recommend that you check out. Thanks for sharing, Dr. Don!

And the Handmade Skull Mug winner is...

Congratulations to Andrea (Off Her Cork) who was the randomly selected winner of the Handmade Skull Mug Giveaway!

Thanks as always to everyone for participating, I'm continually impressed with what a creative bunch of folks you are! Don't forget you can still buy you own skull mugs and more directly from Skeletal Dropkick.

AND be sure to enter this week's giveaway of a beautiful etched drinking glass from our very own Tatman!

[BONUS] Papercraft Skull in Use

Jeremy "The Skull Fanatic" from Prince George B.C. Canada did an incredible job translating my Papercraft Skull into a metal version! He says, "These Skulls are 10 Ga. Steel, i re-drew your PDF paper craft skull on the CNC plasma table i opperate, Doubled its size in almost every way kept the functionality, and even evolved it a bit by rounding some corners"...

[CONTEST] Win an etched Skull-A-Day glass!

Our very own Tatman has offered to give away one of his awesome official Skull-A-Day etched glasses to a lucky reader! 

front

back

To be entered in the drawing just leave a comment below saying what your toast to a skull would be. [NOTE: If you're reading this on Facebook, be sure to leave your comment on the original Skull-A-Day.com post if you want to be actually entered in the contest]

IMPORTANT: Don't forget to include a way to contact you (either an e-mail in the post OR make sure your Blogger profile has an e-mail link for you on it).

Everyone is welcome to enter, but please note that if you're out of the US you will need to pay for shipping.

You have until just Midnight Eastern Time February 11th to enter so don't delay! [UPDATE: Thanks to everyone for participating! The contest is now over and the winner will be announced soon!]


And of course you don't have to wait til the end of the contest to get some awesome glassware from Tatman, he's got plenty of skull design and can even do custom work. Check out his site HERE!

[UPDATE] To see more of his work go HERE. And if you're on Facebook, sign up for the Tatman Glass group HERE.

Good luck!

Snow Skulls

Yesterday was Groundhog Day here in the US. It appears the boys (Staten Island Chuck , Liburn Lee , and Punxsutawney Phil ) weren’t able to agree this year on what is ahead for the next six weeks. Therefore, today’s skulls can either be a celebration of the winter weather departing or a reminder of more winter weather yet to come

First up Sage wrote: “Tis the season! Here is a paper snowflake skull that I made. I call it ‘I Heart Skulls’. Hope you enjoy! Thanks for all your inspiration! Peace, Love, and Skulls!”



Sxykat-from “the left coast of Canada” sent us a link to a digital snowflake she created.



Doishy from Bristol, UK said: “Very simple skull drawn on the second day of snow ( which is so rare these days ) I have been meaning to do a skull some time so finally did. PS: The Meow is from my cat Shadow.”



Stephen Eidson told us: “A fresh snow had just fallen on Lexington, Kentucky... I couldn't resist from adorning my friend's car with a skull.”



Last for the day, Magician/Illusionist Ash Adams said: “I took these pics of my '74 VW Bug, after the freak snow storm in Fort Worth, Texas on Christmas Eve 2009. The teeth are the vent grill. It's ‘Volk-Art’.”



Precipitation C says:

Thank you all for submitting your skullrific work. You have proven that snow and skulls do mix, and I am sure there are many more out there just waiting to be created. If the above wasn't inspiration enough, you can see the foray into snow skulls by the Skull-A-Day 3.0 editorial staff: Skullmaster here & here, Tatman, and Citizen Agent. The prediction as to what the weather will be like here for the next six weeks can only be summed up one way- A 100% chance for skulls each day.

Tuesdays With Tatman #35

I have to give a big thanks to my wife for all of her help on today's T.W.T. Who knew that balloons would be so hard to work with?



I think next time I might find a circus clown to better help with this.

Each Tuesday in the 3.0 year will bring a new Tuesday With Tatman. As a tribute to the Skull Master's astounding feat let's all get creative and try something new(and hopefully skull related).

Repeating Skulls

Well, today is Groundhog Day and in honor of one of my favorite movies with the same name I wanted to show some repeating skulls. These make great desktop wallpapers.

This most recent submission comes from Tyler Whaley. It's a print titled "Mammoth Mustache". You can find the original here on his blog.



Thanks for the mesmerizing print, Tyler. I'm currently using this one and it hypnotizes me every time I turn on my laptop.

Now if you think long and hard you might remember back to the Interlocking Skull which became a favorite of many. With a bit of cropping a reader named Mark helped to create the Interlocking Skull Wallpaper. Original tile is located here.



Another reader named Jesse took that design to a whole new headache inducing level in Braincase XVIII. Original tile is here.



Thanks to the help of long time Skull-A-Day friend, B13, you can choose from three different versions (#1 #2 #3) of Noah's Ornament(al) Skull. Here's a preview of #1 from Braincase XXVI.



Anthony j "weird.eye.one" showed off his craftiness in Braincase XXVIII with this argyle skull pattern. Original tile is here.



In Braincase XXXI someone only known as "designstation" sent in this spiffy hand drawn pattern. Original tile is here.



The most awesome Dan Springer, who brought you yesterday's February Desktop Calendar, submitted this desktop way back in Braincase XXXVIII. Original size is here.



This Warm Skull Wallpaper was created by Ataedun for Migomagi Brand. Original tile is here.



And most recently we were pleased to show the Smiley Skull Desktop tile of Kenneth Botsford Jr. with his illustrated skull. Original is here.



I hope that I don't have to repeat myself when I say that Skull-A-Day should be your first stop for some kick ass skull desktop patterns. I hope everyone finds something they like in here and thanks so much to the creators who submitted these. Skull-A-Day is here because of you. Happy Groundhog Day!

C-Rations: 0C100011

This week’s offering is a Cheese Tortilla.


“De sus cabezas están llenas de queso” 8" X 6" Cut flour tortilla with cheese, pan fried

Chihuahua C says:

On my mind this week are the large number of people who have been killed along the US/Mexican border due in part to turf wars between drug cartels.

Over the weekend there was another incident in Juarez, Mexico in which 16 teenagers were killed while watching a soccer match. It is believed the gunman had the wrong location. In the first month of 2010 there have been 230 murdered in Juarez.

Please take a moment to remember those that are no longer here, as well as those who are ever present, working to make the future free from senseless violence.

Remember each Monday during the 3.0 year I am posting an original skull design. My weekly offerings are nothing compared to the one-a-day massive project done by the Skullmaster in 1.0, but hopefully you will find some nourishment in these weekly offerings.

Need more nourishment? You can always Friend or Follow.

[BONUS] February Desktop Calendar from Dan Springer

Dan Springer has once again made a skull-tastic desktop calendar for free download.

Be sure to click on the image to get the full-size file and don't forget to check out Dan's other awesome work on his site HERE.

Box Tree Skull

Marcel from Berlin, Germany wrote: “I made a lot of stuff for a Berlin-based cafe recently, including two fake skull-shaped box trees.”

If you are interested in the process of making these, you can find more images including two video clips here.

Green C says:

I really enjoyed seeing the behind the scene images of the making of these trees. This is an amazing piece and truly a work of art. Did you get any inspiration from the Skullmaster’s work?
I like that this is artificial so that you will have many years of enjoyment with it. Thank you for allowing us to share your work.