Ancient Roman texts and sculptures describe a Celtic practice of severing your defeated enemies' heads, embalming them with resin and plant oils, and displaying them as war trophies: now, archaeologists have unearthed evidence of the practice at Le Cailar, the 2,500 year old walled city near the Rhone. Read the rest
Eve (AKA Talismana Designs) carves these $32 bird skull rings out of slaughterhouse surplus cow-bones, custom carved to your size. (via Creepbay) Read the rest
Damien Noll sez, "My skulls and bones are all burned (like black line tattoo) using just a magnifying lens and sunshine." Read the rest
Awesome baking project for Halloween. Read the rest
Perfect for all your Voodoo 3D needs. [Amazon] Read the rest
Be the dangerous bad boy with a deck of Skull cards!
My second favorite deck of cards is this Skull deck by the US Playing Card Company.
I flip back and forth between carrying a deck of Arch Angels, and these Skulls. The Skulls backs are just lovely, with mostly standard Bicycle 808 poker faces.
The black and white cards look fantastic in flourishes and are made with the usual USPCC stock and finish, so they fan and glide beautifully.
Bicycle Skull Playing Cards via Amazon Read the rest
Jeweler Camille "Tin Man" Walton features this gorgeous "ghost ring" on her Tumblr; no sign of it in her store, but fwoar. (via Super Punch) Read the rest
Redditor Endeavy created these Halloween-themed skull hotpockets, augmented by dribbles of red, oozing sauce; they used these cake pans to mold the crusts. Read the rest
Artist Chris Ovdiyenko has created a series of modern hobo nickels based on "some of the most iconic coins," imagining what they would look like if they were overengraved by someone with a delightfully morbid sensibility. Read the rest
They're $65 each, handmade from "lava granules plus significant heat ceramic refractory," available in black and white. (via Geekologie) Read the rest
Skulls on the front, wordmark on the back: $38, pink, green or purple, sizes 3-10. (via Punk Fashion) Read the rest
Kreepsville's $65, 8" x 10" x 6" Skull Collection Handbag glows in the dark, gets top marks from reviewers, features a spooky lining and an inside pocket, and can be delivered by Dec 24! Also available in black and pink. (via Punk Fashion) Read the rest
Salt Lake City's Wyre Art, AKA Kyle Wyatt, makes these amazing, $30 skull and crossbones bun covers, which are so popular that they're on back-order, and which ship in three sizes: "5" x 2" for longer/thicker hair, 5" x 1.5" for longer/regular hair, 4.75" x 1.75" for mid length hair, and 4.5" x 1" for shorter hair." (via Crazy Abalone) Read the rest
Annabel Lector of Conjuror's Kitchen makes rather spectacular, macabre chocolates: gilded crow's skulls, kitten's skulls, conjoined fetal skulls, barn owl skulls and even a chocolate life-mask of Vincent Price and doll head lollipops. (via Wil Wheaton) Read the rest
The artist Sangoma writes, "Anamorphic drawing- for anyone curious about the style. This piece is a combination of graphite, pan pastel, charcoal, and exacto knife (to trim the top of the page)."
UK-based artist Billy Bogiatzoglou creates intricate images of engraved insects and skulls. The Engraved Entomology series has especially detailed beetles, dragonflies, and arachnids. Read the rest
One of my most unforgettable travel experiences was visiting the Sedlec Ossuary in Kutná Hora, near Prague. This small 19-century monastery chapel would be unremarkable, except that it is decorated with thousands of human bones and skulls. There are skull- and femur-decorated columns, hanging garlands of bones, a chandelier made of every bone in the human body, and a replica of the Schwarzenberg family coat of “arms” – that also includes leg, finger, scapula, and coccyx bones! The memory of that space makes any Halloween display seem tame and unimaginative.
If Kutná Hora isn’t in your travel plans, check out Memento Mori, a spectacular book of essays and photographs by UCLA PhD and art historian Paul Koudounaris. His 500 color photographs here are arresting, both in subject matter and photographic technique. The handsome hardbound book includes a stunning centerfold of a bejeweled and gold-encrusted mummy. The detail and visual opulence of the photo justifies the giant four-page spread. I enjoyed reading the informative essays about the use of human bones as a form of remembrance in cultures around the world, from Europe to Thailand, Japan to Peru, and from ancient times to the present day. Here’s just one fun fact: there are two venerated human skulls (ñatitas) enshrined in the homicide division of the national law enforcement agency in El Alto, Bolivia. These two cranium crime-stoppers have provided “clues to difficult cases and have been credited with helping to solve hundreds of crimes.”
Memento Mori: The Dead Among Us
by Paul Koudounaris
Thames and Hudson
2015, 208 pages, 9 x 13.3 x 1 inches (hardcover)
