The Pearly Skeleton project
There’s something satisfying about taking two materials that don’t seem like they belong together and turning them into something elegant and weird. Also I wanted a project to fit in my ✨dark aesthetic✨
Moodboard and Inspo
Sketching and Pattern
I always begin with a rough sketch, even if I end up changing things later. For this project, I drew a simplified skeleton, nothing too anatomical, just enough structure to guide the layout.
Cutting the Leather Pieces
The skeleton started to separate into its individual pieces, suddenly it felt like I was building an articulated creepy puppet.
The leather pieces are handtooled into some organic shapes, painted and varnished.
Choosing and arranging the pearls
I laid out a collection of different sizes and began experimenting with placement. Larger pearls toward focal points while smaller ones filled in the details. They may all be plastic, but all together they are quite convincing.
This part felt like decorating. I would shift a pearl, step back, shift another, step back again… drop dozens on the floor. Twice.
Seeing the finished skeleton was incredibly rewarding.
And even though it’s made of simple materials, it has a kind of presence, like a book character.
Here is the pattern if you’d like to make something similar for yourself:
And the full video is here:
Thanks for reading!
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