Prototype Leather Cage-Wrapped Skull...

This was a fun project. Like, not. Eeesh. This very slippery carved skull of wood or something -- but very nicely done -- has two holes at the jawbone, but if I tried to put wire or leather through that, the skull would of course hang upside down.

My customer is very, very particular. Doesn't like frou-frou-ey stuff, doesn't like shiny, doesn't like large. But he does like a backstory. While I was first playing with the skull and test-wrapping various wires and leather around it it reminded me of those medieval cages that criminals and such were hung in to starve and get their eyes picked out by ravens; essentially to be rendered down to a facsimile of what I was holding in my hand. Hey, I get up at 3:30 in the morning to go to the market. I'm allowed.

Here is the prototype. He can play with this and try to make the skull fall out, and then when/if the design is approved I'll probably redo it a little more tidily.

I hammered the 1.5mm Greek leather to flatten it...

...to keep the three layers of leather as flat as possible, which I then wrapped with 24 gauge copper wire. I probably would've used 26 gauge, but I didn't have any, and if I do this again I will make that weaving a few rows larger. It looks pretty cool.

This is the back of the skull, again, should've used 26 gauge. Even though this is dead soft wire, it sure hardens fast. The resulting lumpiness kinda reminds me of brains. And I really like the self-bail, how that turned out.

I mentioned my customer doesn't like shiny: this wire will tarnish very nicely after a while. After I took the picture, I used my pliers to make waves in the wire and tighten them up a bit.

Thanks for looking!