SAHARA – Faux Cow Skull

(Sahara has now been sold but there are still other skulls listed in my Etsy Shop)

‘Sahara’ reflects the purity and elegance of a natural skull. After being hand sculpted from clay I painted minimal detail and use natural tones to accentuate her curves and shape.

Sahara’s ‘horns’ are actually a pair of ‘Baileyi’ Airplants. Here are my simple recommendations on how to keep them happy and healthy;
– Mist the plants once or twice a week with water, ensuring they have dried off within 4 hours or your plants may begin to rot.
– Place the skull in a bright room, but out of direct sunlight as the plant may get too dry and begin to brown.
I include a care sheet specific to the variety of airplant with each skull for future reference.

Sahara is designed to be hung on the wall and therefore has a simple hole for hanging (e.g. place on to a picture hook or nail). She will arrive nestled in tissue paper and securely tied down within a tear strip postal box – all the packaging is recyclable.

Measurements (Length x Width)
Skull = 5.5″ x 3.5″ / 14cm x 9cm
Skull + Horns = 9″ x 8″ / 23cm x 21cm

Materials;
Air-drying Clay
Tillandsias

Each of my skulls are one of a kind. They may share a theme collectively however they will never come out the same. I give them all a personal name to reflect this uniqueness.

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Stag Surgery…

So there’s a really interesting interiors shop quite local to me (Kudos Interiors) – each time we go in there’s always something to catch my eye and it often makes you want to redecorate whole rooms at a time (if money was no object of course). My mum has recently taken a liking to the whole ‘tartan/country/rustic’ style so we couldn’t believe our luck when we saw this injured stag for clearance at only £10! My mum was quite happy to take it ‘as was’ – she planned to turn it side on so the breakage wouldn’t be noticeable, but I knew I could go one better and actually repair it. I’m sure the woman in the shop thought we were mad paying £10 for a clearly broken lamp but if only she see how handsome he is now!

So how did I do it?
I decided to use air drying clay as I knew it would texture and paint quite well. I doubt I could have colour matched as effectively had I used polymer clay. Due to the antler was quite thin and long I thought it best to use a straightened paper clip up the middle for extra support. I then textured it to look more like the original antler.

Once it was dry, I painted it using acrylic paint – this was the trickiest part and it took the longest. As I couldn’t get an exact match, I sneakily painted the other antler with the paint I’d mixed in hope that it wouldn’t be noticeable, as they now technically matched in colour. To attach the antler I used silicone glue and left to dry for a while.  My mum was over the moon at the results and so was I! What a steal for £10!

Fimo Fail…

So I had this mad idea that I could probably make those little slices of Fimo cane nail art thingies. Well… maybe not. The making went well, the baking went too well, and the slicing did not go well at all. The problem; I baked the cane for too long, it was too brittle to cut thinly. I’d like to try again, I found it fun. Has anyone ever made their own Fimo canes for nail art?

Here’s a sort of step-by-step of what I did.
1. I rolled out two pieces of fimo really flat and put on on top of the other.
2. I trimmed the edges, but made sure to keep one colour longer than the other so I could get a good roll.
3. Rolled them together which then create the spiral pattern.
4. Kept reducing the size of the roll by rolling them out longer and longer. I had to cut the roll in two as it was getting too long to control how even I was rolling it.
5. Trimmed off the ends, and as you can see a lovely small spiral of perfect size for using on my nails.
6. I went a step further and experimented with adding spirals together and again reducing them. Look at that funky pattern!
7. I baked the cane for 30mins, which I now suspect was way too long.
8. The baked cane cut into three. It was okay to cut into big chunks.
9. And the ‘fail’. Look how brittle it is, it just disintegrated! I just couldn’t get it to slice nice and thin like the ones you buy. Boooo. Never mind, I’ll try again!