Skulls, rebuilt in glass and color.
Each piece in this collection starts as a bare, cleaned animal skull and ends as a thousand-bead mosaic, laid one seed bead at a time until the whole form is covered in pattern.
No two designs repeat. Every skull is planned around its own shape, then filled freehand — a slow, meditative process that can take anywhere from a week to well over a month or more.
Beaded Skull: Turquoise Mandala
Every bead on this skull was placed by hand, one at a time, into a layer of resin. The turquoise mandala pattern spreads across the crown in carefully aligned rings, creating a balanced geometric design that follows the natural shape of the skull.
Beaded Horn Detail
This close-up shows how the beadwork narrows as it reaches the base of the horn. A broad diamond lattice gradually tightens into a small six-point flower, creating a smooth transition where the decorated skull meets the natural horn.
Beaded Skull: Profile Detail
I leave the eye sockets and teeth bare on purpose, so the bone shows through as a frame for the beadwork. This close-up shows how the pattern shifts from geometric diamonds up top to a bold paisley motif near the jaw.
Beaded Skull: Underside
Even the surfaces no one sees head-on get the full treatment. This palate carries its own standalone design in blue, yellow, green, and red — a completely different color story from the top of the same skull.
Beaded Turtle Shell: Fire & Sky
A second piece, worked in orange, blue, and green with a large central flower anchoring the whole design. No two of my skulls share a layout, even when a palette repeats.
Beaded Skull: Star Compass
This longhorn skull keeps its full natural horns, with the beadwork radiating from a six-point star at the center of the crown. Cobalt, marigold, and rust continue down the face in geometric patterns that echo the star-inspired design above.
What this work actually is.
This is bead mosaic — sometimes called chaquira work — a technique with deep roots in the folk art of the Wixárika (Huichol) people of the Sierra Madre in western Mexico, where entire skulls, masks, and gourds are covered in tiny glass beads pressed into wax. This collection borrows that same patient, bead-by-bead method and applies it here, piece by piece, to naturally shed or cleaned skulls.
Nothing is printed, stamped, or glued on as a sheet. Every single bead you see was placed, pressed, and set by hand, one at a time, directly into the surface.
the process.
From bare bone to finished mosaic, one bead at a time.
01
Clean & prepare the skull
The skull is cleaned, dried, and checked over so the surface is sound enough to hold beadwork for years.
02
Map the design
The bone's own ridges, sockets, and curves suggest where a pattern should split, mirror, or wrap — the design is planned around the form, not the other way round.
03
Lay the adhesive base
A thin, workable layer of wax or resin is spread section by section across the bone — just enough surface to set beads into before it firms up.
04
Set every bead by hand
Tiny glass seed beads are pressed in one at a time, row by row, building diamonds, flowers, and mandalas freehand as the pattern grows outward.
05
Seal & finish
Once coverage is complete, the piece is cleaned up and sealed, and any bare bone — teeth, horn, nasal cavity — is left exposed on purpose, as a frame for the color.