My drawing teacher, in portrait classes, constantly harangues me about getting the skull shape right. I was being cheeky when asked her if I should get myself a skull to practise on. She said yes. So a search on the internet led me to Skulls Unlimited, where I got lost for a while. A few weeks later this arrived:

And inside:

Phil is a generic skull replica, so he’s actually genderless. But he has a spring-loaded jaw and a flip-top cranium, so he could just as easily be a party decoration as an artist model.

I haven’t drawn him yet. After a good week’s writing last week, my hands and back have been cranky. Which also means I haven’t been finishing off the things I’ve made on the knitting machine, or refashioning projects. Instead I’ve attacked my jewellery collection, culling some pieces, scavenging a few others for elements to reuse, fixing and cleaning, and writing lists of ideas for making more – and, since I keep it in three places, how to store and display it.