Thursday, May 27, 2010

Novel Paper Skull

Chester, UK is the home of one Rae Welch who sends us this lovely paper skull. Here's some info about it: "This is the illustration I have made for the book cover of Perfume by Patrick Suskind for the UK Penguin Design Award 2010. It is made from the actual pages of the book and represents the main characters final death scene (if you haven't read it, it is quite...skin tearingly graphic)."



I am amazed at the detail you put into the skull as well as the flowers. The whole piece is great and would make an excellent cover for the book. Mark Twain once said, "The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them." Perhaps this post will inspire our readers to get into skull making AND to pick up a good book. Thanks, Rae!

3 comments:

Abby Davis said...

Everything about this piece is beautiful. It inspires me to take the pages from an old German dictionary (from an old project) and make origami lilies from some pages. More hair flowers for me!

luvskulls said...

This is really cool. I'd love to know how you did it. I want to try and make my own, but yours is so beautiful I know it wont compare

Rae Welch said...

I started to gradually build up layers of scrunched up newspaper and sticking them together with gum tape, then added the pages of text afterwards. Building sculptures in this way can be quite difficult because it is tricky to take layers off with out destroying the strength of the structure, but it is only recycled paper so is easy to start again. The flower sections are cut out and stuck together with glue, and the whole thing was assembled to photograph. Have a go, it doesn't even have to be a realistic looking skull to look great, I am going to attempt a whole skeleton, although I may need a bit of luck getting the proportions right.