How to Skull Lamp

With a bunch of salvaged materials and spare parts (and free time) you can give your skull new life!

Step 1: Plastering

Mix your plaster and attach the top of the skull to the bottom. Then mix some more and mount your light sockets in the eye sockets. Make sure to have your wiring snaked through to the bottom of the skull.

Step 2: Spray Paint

Step up an area or go outside while spraying. Tape your light sockets so no paints gets in. Additional layers may be added.

Step 3: Filling/decorating the Skull

This is one step where there's little to no rules. You can decorate your skull with anything your heart desires. In this case we melted crayons in and around it to make it really stand out.

Step 4: Building a Base

Cut your wood to any desired shape and screw them together. Drill a hole big enough to pass your wiring through to the back on the base. Use your stain and coat the wood evenly then let it dry for a while. Then paint your border with any color of choice.

Step 5: Mounting the Skull

Apply a good amount of construction adhesive to the bottom of the skull and plop it on your base. Make sure to snake your wires through the hole you drilled. Let it dry thoroughly for 3 days.

Step 6: Mount Side Lights

In this case we used old curtain rod holders and glued the light sockets to the tops. After getting that together screw on your side lights to the sides of your base.

Step 7: Wiring It Up

Mount your electrical box to the back of your base where all of your wires should now be. Twist together all of your white wires to each other, then do the same to the blacks. Attach your ganged black wires to one terminal on your switch and have another piece of wire ready to attach to your other terminal to continue the circuit. Tape your terminals, then mount the switch to your box. Take your plug and attach your white wires to the silver screw and your black to the gold screw.

Step 8: Test Your Lights

Plug it in and test the bulbs. Make sure the switch or the box isn't getting too warm signaling a problem in your wiring.

Step 9: Finalize

You can either continue to decorate or leave it as it at this point. We melted more crayons and glued pieces a broken mirror to our base. Once you've reached desired look apply your polyurethane. use as many layers as you'd like. We used about 5. Let each layer dry for a few hours or until clear.