i've been giving my sister skull-related birthday gifts for the past few years. mexican sugar skull-making kits, stuff like that. her birthday is near halloween, and that's why i do it. she's never complained, and anyway she's got a boyfriend who can get her stuff she actually wants. i want to give skulls.
these skulls are felted. it took a little trial-and-error to rework the unfelted, crocheted skulls into something that would shape correctly; felting takes more out of the horizontal than it does the vertical. so, many afternoons i found myself slaving over hot skulls in the kitchen sink...
soaping and rinsing and agitating...
until i had the shape and size i wanted. as to size, my rule-of-skull was: when it was wet, i had to be able to stuff ONE plastic shopping bag inside of it snugly. more than one, and it was still too big.
stuffing them while they were wet, and doing a little facial reconstruction here and there with rubberbands and whatnot, made for various expressions of agony.
a few written instructions, and they're off in the mail!
if anyone ever asks me "how many skulls can a healthy woman felt in one afternoon, comfortably?" the answer will not be "four". i felt like i had been in a boxing ring.
on an excellent suggestion from my father,
ben
did a little research and bought some strings of light-emitting diodes for the project. they are "cool" lights, and safer to use -- plus, they have a sickly color to them. spooky upon spooky.