My mates Mark and Steve at Deadringers – who are fucking brilliant – are also just good guys.

Not only are they treating me right, but they also make my favorite skull ring in the whole world, the classic:

And it just got bettter – the classic is on special, normally $395, you can have one for 25% off at $295 (and a free beanie!) if you order before the end of the year.

If you’ve been lusting over this ring, this is a great price. It’s a fabulous bit of work. The pictures, though they’re much better than they used to be, still don’t do it justice, you have to get one on your finger to see how great it is.

Oh my god.

Tony Creed is the fucking MAN.

I give you the Ace of Skulls.

Tony. Dude. If I had a sister I’d give her to you. Here, keys to my car.

I MUST HAVE THAT RING – but it’s gotta have sparkin’ gems in the eyes.

If you like to gamble, I tell you I’m your man,

The Ace Of Spades!

My pals over at Deadringer have a gallery page up I hadn’t noticed.

Wow, i say. Wow.

Here’s a snapshot – but the page has so much more, each thumbnail clickable to see a close up.

Want. It. All.

The Deadringer Classic remains the gold standard for skull rings. There is none finer, and i truly don’t think a finer skull ring is possible; but the thing that pleases me is that they’re keeping up that incredibly high artistic standard, AND they’re adding new stuff, AND they have a site that does justice to the product. So many vendors have great stuff ill-represent on their web sites; Deadringer has a site that kicks ass.

Evidently they also have some new stuff due out in the next few weeks so I’ll be watching.

Keep it up, Mark and Steve.

I’m lucky I don’t live near where Tony Creed works and sells. Not only would I always be hangin’ out at his studio ’cause I like watching jewelers work (and cause he’s fuckin’ cool), but I’d be in hock to my eyeballs because I’d be buyin’ one o’ everything he makes.

This is the current object of lust:

Thing is, i’m not a christian, so as a general rule I don’t wear crosses. Same as I don’t wear hindu or muslim or jewish buddhist or any other strictly religious symbols. But I do make exceptions; I used to wear a celtic cross dangle on my earring, and I have a Voudou veve pendant that speaks to me as a sort of diver’s lucky talisman. I won’t tattoo such symbols on me, but with jewelry, once in a while, I’ll go with it. I’ve never really wanted a cross ring, and as much as I like, for example, the german Iron Cross, I don’t have much with that symbol on it either (maybe one or two shirts).

This one though – i dunno. It just works. Maybe it’s just that FTW quality that all of Tony’s work has.

Damn, I need to get me another job just to fund my silver habit. This is worse than drugs.

In my never-ending quest to cover my entire body – or at least my entire hands – with silver, I’ve acquired a couple more rings.

And again, these are due to the generosity and genius of my friend Julian Lamb of Ruby Crush; Julian, I hope you’re selling some of these, because I love them.

So first, this one – which is mine all mine – and then the other, which, alas, I must give back.

(click for a bigger view)

This is the big brother to my first Ruby Crush ring, and like that, it is a thing of exquisite workmanship. Julian’s a true artist. This one, though, is special. Not just special as in ‘it looks like a wild screaming lunatic’, though it does, and that alone makes it stand out in a field of crazy-lookin’ silver skulls. But it’s also special in that Julian – again, a gesture of generosity – carved my name into the skull in elegant old-english characters. I don’t think the photos above really do it justice, it’s hard to photograph silver with a little hand-held digital snapshot camera. The lettering, though, is just stunning. I’m not sure if he did this by hand, or if he used some sort of stamp, but whatever he did, it looks great. Honestly, I’ve not even worn this ring though I’ve hard it nearly a month. It somehow seems too good to wear and fuck up. Because that’s who I am, as soon as I put it on, it’s gonna take abuse.

Julian’s a truly gifted man; I’m hoping some of you skull collectors order pieces from him. He’s also a hell of a nice guy.

But wait, there’s more.

Read more “Fist fulla Elvis”

Chelsea Girl, who’s still in the midst of her Seaside rendezvous (so adorable), managed to pull herself away from the sand and sun long enough to point me to a couple of pieces of jewelry I love, from Barbara Klar of clearmetals.com.

She has this awesome pieces she calls ‘Victorian Skull Lockets’ – and given my fetish for padlocks and other things that lock, I think these things rule – though these are lockets, not actual locks (I’d dig seeing a working padlock version, though!) I’d love to have a look at one of these first-hand, though alas, she’s over on the other coast.

She doesn’t list prices, though she’s she’s happy to quote if you contact her and I’ll post ’em here if she gives me an ok on that.

Awesome pieces, I tell ‘ya. She has a few skull rings, though they’re a bit girly for my taste, and a lot of other lovely pieces, so her site’s worth a look-over.

&t

My friend Julian Lamb (Jeweler to the Queen) was kind and generous enough to send me a ring, the better to show off the quality of his work, from his shop, Ruby Crush. And when I say quality, I mean it, he ain’t fuckin’ around.

A truly lovely thing it is – click the images for a bigger view.

This is the last time you’ll see this thing so shiny; soon it’ll take on the look of hard livin’ like the rest of ’em.

Julian’s site is short on pictures – the ring I have, the jawless skull, isn’t shown; only a gape-jawed lunatic skull that’s pretty cool (Particularly in gold). But I like this one much better than the jawed version. He’s got some decent other stuff stuff (crosses and Fleur De Lis, which I can sorta see Brutha Ray wearing but which are not me), and a couple of utterly bizzaro pieces, a Jimi Hendrix ring and an Elvis ring; both of which I’d love to own but can’t imagine actually wearing, they’re so over-the-top (though actually I’d rather see one of sunglasses-and-mutton-chops 70’s elvis). I’d love to see these in person, they’re awesome work in the photos, the Jimi one particularly.

I have the feeling, though, that Julian, like many jewelers, has a LOT more work that’s not on the site; I’m hoping he’ll get a good gallery up that shows the full range.

This ring Julian sent me is lovely; smaller and a bit more elegant that my other rings, it’s more keith-richards looking that the others. It’s simple, classic, well made without a lot of fuss.

You can’t really see in Julian’s pictures, but this has a lighter, thinner band than my other skulls, so the fit is different. I ordered a size 13 to fit my index finger, basing it on how other rings fit, but with the thinner band I could have gone a 12.5 or even 12. The band is thick, but not wide, so it’s still a substantial piece of silver.

This is a really good ring for a smaller hand, or a smaller finger (though it’s no delicate thing; it’s just a bit smaller than my others.) This is the most elegant skull ring I own.

More pictures below the cut.

Read more “Fist fulla Crush”