Skull jewellery and gemstones
Skulls. Usually not what comes to mind when talking about jewellery design and carved gems. However, skull jewels, and especially rings, have had a long tradition of being part of one’s collection.
The appeal may not be so obvious but it is one that continues to be popular throughout times.
Why a skull? It acts as a reminder. That life is not forever and days are counted. That one should live every day to the fullest, carpe diem. And what’s not to love about that message? Embracing one’s life and accepting your fate, not always fighting against the things we cannot control.
In more recent years, Theo Fennell is recognised as one of the top fashion jewellers to use this symbol of life and has used all sorts of gemstones in his creations to amplify his creations.
If rings are not your go to jewellery item this Halloween, then perhaps a pendant necklace by the same designer could be an option.
Halloween calls for creativity, so this year, why not trade in the pumpkin for a carved gem skull? Sure to get your neighbours quivering in their boots and make a bold statement.
There are a multitude of options. In keeping with the orange theme of the pumpkin, a citrine skull could be an option.
Quartz, which citrine is a variety of, has a hardness of 7/7.5 on the Mohs scale and makes it a good candidate to get sharp edges to carve the teeth and a pointy nose.
It can also come other colours such as purple amethyst:
Or even blue:
A wide variety of options is available on the market, including at specialized auctions.
Bonhams sold this lot in Los Angeles in 2017 for $1,187 incl premium. It includes an amethyst obelisk decorated with twenty carved skulls, Height 11in; a sculpture comprising three skulls with a butterfly, carved of boulder opal from Queensland, Australia, length 5 1/2 in; together with a Mexican black obsidian carving of a skull with owl perched, height 6 1/2 in.
But possibly the most “out of this world” carved skull must be a sculpture sold in 2015 at Bonhams in Los Angeles, carved out of meteorite, making it the largest Gibeon meteorite carving in the world.
Gibeon meteorites are iron-based and “originated billions of years ago from unstable planet that existed briefly between Jupiter and Mars.
When the planet broke apart, a section of its core travelled through space for four billion years.” It penetrated the Earth’s atmosphere about 1,000 years ago and landed in Namibia.
This particular 21kgs life-sized carving, nicknamed Yorick, was created from a 280kgs meteorite. It is one of the rarest forms of meteorite.
The choice is vast for Halloween decorations whether for the house or fashionwear. All one needs to do now is pick the right outfit for a night of trick or treating…
