I found a narsty old board in the pile and cut it in half. I drilled a pair of holes in each and hooked them together with a couple of pieces of black wire.
This is the sketch I did to get approval for the lettering
I sketched the letters out in chalk and painted the bones in ivory. Went back with some really dark red and black for the shadows. Touched the thing all over with some cherry wood stain to even out some of the variation in the narsty boards.