Black Skull Beads, Dolled Up

Lastest skull additions to my Etsy shop, these are black dyed stone,

similar to my turquoise and bone-colored stone skulls.

Here are a couple of examples of what I like to do to them.

1. For the skull on the left, I simple squeezed out a small dollop of turquoise acrylic paint into my palm. Then I mushed the skull, eye sockets first, into the paint, dragging the paint deep into the eye sockets. I let the paint set up for a minute, then with a damp paper towel, wiped the paint off the high areas, being carefuly to leave paint in the crevices, such as the teeth.
   
   This is a great fix when you want your beads to color coordinate with the rest of your piece (e.g., Dia de los Muertos earrings and such).
   
   VARIATION: Instead of wiping off the excess paint while wet, you can also wait until it dries completely, then lightly sand off the high areas with very fine sandpaper.
   
2. For the skull on the right, I simply glued vintage glass rhinestones into the eye sockets. Any color works, but here I used crystal AB chatons (pointy-backs). You could also use small flatbacks, but it's a little trickier to get them to lie just right. I used E6000 but a less toxic alternative would be the Ultimate glue by Crafter's Pick. If the glue shows too shiny when dry, just brush a wee bit of matte gel medium over the wayward glue.

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