Behind the Scenes: Longhorn Skull Necklace

I've been on a bit of a southwestern/ wild west kick lately. I think it began when I finished reading "The Dark Tower" series by Stephen King a few months back. Images of windy, desolate terrains littered with longhorn skulls kept entering my mind.So I began to sketch these skulls and make an attempt to create them in wax. Normally it's not too difficult for me...I will often carve or form what I am looking for in just one try. Oh yea, I'm just that good ;). Well, not this time! This lil guy took me three failed attempts to get it right. Starting over on a design is not fun, but doing it three times is just crazy. Normally I might have just decided it wasn't going to work and move on to something else. But I had to get it right, and I'm pretty pleased to say I finally got it looking exactly as I'd planned.

Carving out of wax:
Cleaning and finishing the casting:
The finished product:
So upon channeling my inner cowgirl, I came across these awesome images by Gil Elvgren:
And I'm in love with this chic southwestern inspired clothing by Haute Hippie:
Next three Haute Hippie images from Shopbop.com:
Wouldn't those ensembles look great with the Longhorn Skull Necklace?!