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Much has been said about British bad boy artist DAMIEN HIRST’s groundbreaking $100 million diamond-encrusted platinum skull titled “For The Love of God” since it went on display at London’s White Cube Gallery in June, but to date, little has been revealed about the making of this bling masterpiece, until now. Supertouch offers a step-by-step look at the creation of this masterwork which was created FOR the artist by some of the masters of European jewelry making at London’s Bentley & Skinner using over 8,601 of the world’s most perfect, flawless diamonds and 2,156 grams of fresh platinum (not to mention $28 million of the artist’s own money). And while the exhibit closed on July 7th without the piece being sold, don’t expect to see it on markdown anytime soon…
Photos by Red Clover Pix
The big boy himself…
The original 18th century skull of a mid-30-year-old man the piece is based on beside the massive 52.40 carat flawless light fancy pink, brilliant-cut, pear-shaped diamond that is the final work’s centerpiece…
After a cast of the original skull was made, 32 individual platinum plates were created and assembled..
All of which were lasered with thousands of individual setting holes…
The diamonds were then set individually into each hole…
And the original skull’s teeth were removed and lightly cleaned…
A set of platinum mandibles were created from the original tooth castings but were left out of the final piece which utilized the real teeth instead…
A close-up look at the platinum jawbone awaiting its real set of tooth implants…
A view of the skull at its midway point with many of the tiny diamonds set…
Dropping in the massive pink diamond centerpiece…
And hand-finishing the setting…
Hirst takes a close-up look at the skull’s progress…
Attention to detail required thousands of hours of painstaking adjustments…
Before the final masterwork could be put on display…
July 21st, 2007 at 5:18 pm
[...] Supertouch: The making of Damien Hirst’s diamond skull Now this is rad. Wow. (tags: damienhirst) [...]
July 22nd, 2007 at 2:41 pm
[...] DAMIEN HIRST’s $100 million diamond-encrusted platinum skull entitled “For The Love of Godâ€Â, isn’t just the most talked about piece of art in recent times, but its a pretty popular topic of discussion for anyone interested in Popular Culture. Supertouch have brought to our attention this step by step guide to how the skull was made, they also bring about the very valid point, that while it is widely discussed.. not much has actually been revealed about it! No one really knows that much… until now.. check it out here. [...]
July 22nd, 2007 at 6:30 pm
[...] recently pointed out by Supertouch, Damien Hirst’s ridiculously priced diamond-encrusted skull titled “For The Love Of [...]
July 22nd, 2007 at 11:58 pm
[...] White Cube Gallery closed on July 7th, unfortunately no buyer stepped up to the plate. Supertouch offers an in depth look in the making of this skull, which until now was a mysterious [...]
July 24th, 2007 at 9:33 am
[...] an awesome blog post all about the making of Damien Hirst’s newest piece, For the Love of [...]
July 24th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
[...] Read it here [...]
July 24th, 2007 at 5:28 pm
[...] En este sitio se muestra el proceso de su creación: TECHNIQUE///THE MAKING OF DAMIEN HIRST’S DIAMOND SKULL… [...]
July 25th, 2007 at 2:20 am
[...] de estos 13 pasos y con un poco de paciencia, el resultado deberÃÂa ser algo parecido a [...]
July 25th, 2007 at 7:13 am
[...] thought Damien Hirst just bedazzled this thing, but apparently I am wrong. Insert starving artist / Damien Hirst is like the richest artist evar [...]
July 25th, 2007 at 8:18 am
[...] Ever wondered how to make a diamond-encrusted skull? For you, and for all those others like you, Damien Hirst is here to help. [...]
July 25th, 2007 at 5:00 pm
[...] If you haven’t heard, British artist Damien Hirst’s latest work of art is a platinum skull covered in diamonds that’s titled, appropriately, “For The Love of God.” The pricetag? $100 million. What goes into making such an insane item? Supertouch has a breakdown of the process that went into creating it. The best part? Hirst had very little to do with it (other than plunking down $28 mil of his own for the raw materials, so to speak), instead hiring jewelry makers Bentley & Skinner to do the dirty work for him. Art ain’t what it used to be, let me tell you. [Supertouch] [...]
July 25th, 2007 at 6:42 pm
[...] Supertouch beautifully sums-up the processes behind the making of Damien Hirst’s “For the Love of [...]
July 25th, 2007 at 8:44 pm
[...] Supertouch to see how this boring skull becomes Damien Hirst’s $100 million “What were you [...]
July 25th, 2007 at 10:24 pm
[...] The Making of Damien Hirst’s Diamond Skull At least this time it’s not a dead animal floating in formaldehyde. (tags: Art) [...]
July 26th, 2007 at 2:28 am
[...] heeft een fotoverslag van the making of For The Love Of God. Er is toch serieus wat tijd gestoken in dat ding. 26.07.07 – Uw Moeder Valt onder: Kunst [...]
July 26th, 2007 at 8:30 am
[...] If you haven’t heard, British artist Damien Hirst’s latest work of art is a platinum skull covered in diamonds that’s titled, appropriately, “For The Love of God.” The pricetag? $100 million. What goes into making such an insane item? Supertouch has a breakdown of the process that went into creating it. The best part? Hirst had very little to do with it (other than plunking down $28 mil of his own for the raw materials, so to speak), instead hiring jewelry makers Bentley & Skinner to do the dirty work for him. Art ain’t what it used to be, let me tell you. [Supertouch] [...]
July 26th, 2007 at 9:01 am
[...] o crânio de diamantes feito pelo Damien Hirst lá em junho [link] e agora aparece na internet uma espécie de making of. Mostrando todas as etapas para se criar a obra de arte mais cara da [...]
July 26th, 2007 at 10:57 am
[...] Supertouchvia Gizmodo Posted by Jay Filed in Fine Art [...]
July 27th, 2007 at 4:45 am
[...] now everybody has heard about Damien Hirst’s diamond skull, ‘For The Love of God‘, that’s worth $100 million. PIEK!, some dutch artists, made this piece called [...]
July 27th, 2007 at 7:52 am
[...] more at suoertouch Popularity: unranked [?] Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where [...]
July 27th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
[...] diamond encrusted skull…so it seemed fitting to provide the details on the making of…as provided by the blog [...]
July 29th, 2007 at 10:25 pm
[...] too long ago. Some may still be rolling their eyes and others might find this behind-the-scenes, technical breakdown of the process to be down right interesting–from casting to plating to setting, right down to [...]
July 30th, 2007 at 4:25 pm
[...] The making of Damien Hirst’s Brazillion-dollar diamond skull is pretty [...]
August 5th, 2007 at 5:48 pm
[...] he put that thing together? Supertouch, my new favorite blog, recently posed a bunch of insightful photos from red clover pix that shed some light on the process. The most expensive piece of modern [...]
August 5th, 2007 at 10:57 pm
[...] The Making of Damien Hirst’s Diamond Skull. (via Supertouch) [...]
August 19th, 2007 at 2:04 pm
[...] supertouchblog’s making of and greg’s post on the skull’s costing and the full flickr photo [...]
August 30th, 2007 at 6:06 pm
[...] More on Hirst’s masterpiece HERE, and HERE… [...]
October 1st, 2007 at 10:09 am
[...] Supertouch: TECHNIQUE///THE MAKING OF DAMIEN HIRST’S DIAMOND SKULL… [...]