Skull Candle 2007

In the summer of 2007, I've been out of college for a year already and still unemployed, and a month away from working for my current afterschool gig. My mother had been out of the house for 6 years now, and this candle was just sitting there, smelling, well, quite nice, actually. But sitting there nonetheless. I had cheapo $1 wood carving tools, that couldn't cut paper, and went at this with no direction whatsoever. I just chopped, plucked, carved and gouged at it as if I had nothing better to, because, well, I didn't. And to my surprise, this started forming. After I went about finishing it up, I took a propane lighter and tried to soften some edges. Instead, it just made the wax black and melted. So, I pulled out a heat gun (yeah, I have a heat gun, want to make something of it?) and softened the whole sculpture using the low setting. Gave it a flashy feel that looks much better in person (for now). I love this damn thing, and never get tired of looking at it daily. One of the few true triumphs. If I could, I would like to cut the back half off and start a new sculpture one day, but I'm afraid to damage this piece doing so. And pointers to get that done? And for shits and giggles, I have all the old wax shavings and chunks set aside in case I ever want to use them. They really do smell nice.

I've been wanting to upload this for years, but all the photos of this I've taken have been lackluster. These are the best for now, but I'll try to get better ones over the weekend. Please, ignore the incorrect date on the photo. For some reason, I kept thinking it was 2006 until I just started typing this.

At least 5 hours, I recall, squatting on the floor crisscross applesauce (I work with young kids, remember?) jabbing at this thing nonstop. Huge ass 3 wick wax candle, carved with P.O.S. woodcarving tools.

Sculpture & Image © Scott P. (NDX, NexusDX).

Do not distribute, reproduce, copy or alter without expressed permission.