Dia de los Muertos: Celebrating Ancestry

 

I love Dia de los Muertos!  It's a Mexican holiday that celebrates our loved ones that have passed on, leaving what ultimately is a skeleton.  Skeletons aren't feared or considered to be anything other than their loved ones' remains.

Here's an explanation by Judy King that touches my heart:

 “The Mexican flatters death and woos death, he sings to her, dances with her, he laughs at her. Finally he challenges her and in the challenging, death loses her power to intimidate him. Once he knows death intimately, death is no longer wrapped in a cloak of mystery or causes him to fear the darkness

Once the fear of death has been defeated, the clutch she has on the hearts and minds of the living is lessened once and for all. Death’s morbid side is buried under music and remembrances, while skeletons laugh and dance and sing as Mexico celebrates life in its embrace of death.”

The photo above is a ceramic box I made years ago.  It has a skeleton couple on top (a very common scene in Dia de los Muertos art)

 

In this closeup of the shrine, you can see that I added tiny photos of my parents in their youth.  All the decorations on the cake are ceramic.  The tryptic frame/stand is painted foam core board. I added lots of glitter, skulls, angels and the Virgin of Guadalupe at the top.

For the typical 3 day celebration, the families of the town would clean up the graves sites of their loved ones and decorate them with marigolds and candles on the evening of October 31st, and then the celebration begins. 

The Mexican s believe it would be an insult to their ancestors to be sad during the celebration.  I read somewhere that the road the spirits follow back to home would be made slippery with tears.  Instead, they laugh and sharing memories, feast together, making sure to bring the favorite foods of their ancestors (the delicious smells help them find their way home).

Here are some history links for more info:

AZ Central and Sugar Skull Tradition

I highly recommend visiting the Crafty Chica.  Kathy's whole family does wonderful Dia de los Muertos art!

Also, this post is part of Mary England's Celebration Blog Party

My Inner Misbehaver is Out

“My Inner Misbehaver is Out”  is a polymer clay articulated skeleton sprawled on top of a 4" x 4" wood frame.  Her bones are "tattooed" in purple ink.  The frame is worn and decked out with fabulous paper.  A handmade ceramic moon charm is suspended from the inside top.  There's no back to the frame so your wall will show through.  Total height is about 6".  Thickness is 2".
Click here to see the Etsy listing

Monday on the Bone Tree - Zombie Coffee Mug Pendant

Zombies and coffee cups!  I know, right?!  The fun part is the zombies came FROM the coffee cups!  Read all about it on my Etsy shop - DeliciousMischief.

New on The Bone Tree - Skeleton on a Coffin Pendant

This little earthenware guy is new in my Etsy shop - DeliciousMischief.  He's a tiny low relief sculpture on a black glazed coffin.  The bail is handmade and swirly.  A perfect accent to the little black dress!

Bone Tree Jewelry

Etsy recommends having interesting photos of your product and I thought long and hard about it.  This is what I came up with.  It's The Bone Tree.  It's visually exciting to me!  I knew there was a reason I saved those vine wrapped branches all those years!  Soooo I'll be posting what's new on The Bone Tree occasionally, just because I like the sound of it! =0)

Illusive SaniTea

This is The Illusive Sanitea clay whistle.  With a light air pressure, it sounds like a distant foghorn.

Darkness Inspiration's Monster Challenge

Coffee Monster

Yes, this is what I look like before my morning coffee.  It's an inch and a half tall it's made of white earthenware clay and colored with crayons and black paint.

Check out Darkness Inspiration's Blog!

Sweetie

This is Sweetie.  She's a handmade clay whistle.

Each whistle begins as a hollow ball.  To achieve that, you make two pinch pots and join them together.  After the ball dries a bit so that it's firm, but malleable, it can be shaped and smoothed.  I like to carve, stamp and finish the details before cutting the hole and adding the whistle mouth piece.

When the piece is dry it can be fired.  The firing turns the clay to the consistency of an unglazed flower pot.  Now, I don't mind glazing, but I prefer the process of wax resist.  I color on the pottery with crayons, then I paint the whole thing with brown or black acrylic paint.  The paint wipes off the waxy part and soaks in the parts that aren't waxy.  Next they heat in the oven to evaporate the wax (the color remains).  I finish the piece with colored pencil highlights.

Each whistle has a unique sound and different breath pressure to achieve the sound.  If I were an expert whistle carver, I'd be able to control those things, but it is what it is.   Sweetie's whistle sounds like a Ghost Train when blown at a medium pressure.

Colorful,Over-the-Top, Scary Door

Here's my C4 Challenge for April.  Click here to read what the challenge was.

It's clay decorated with crayon (wax resist) and burnt umber acrylic.T he door knob is a crystal bead from my grandmother's broken jewelry collection sitting on a spacer bead backed by a rectangle of copper sheeting.

Day of the Dead Shrine for My Parents

This is a ceramic sculpture box I made last year. I love Dia de los Muertos! It's a Mexican Holiday that celebrates ancestry. This quote really speaks to me...

“The Mexican flatters death and woos death, he sings to her, dances with her, he laughs at her. Finally he challenges her and in the challenging, death loses her power to intimidate him. Once he knows death intimately, death is no longer wrapped in a cloak of mystery or causes him to fear the darkness

Once the fear of death has been defeated, the clutch she has on the hearts and minds of the living is lessened once and for all. Death’s morbid side is buried under music and remembrances, while skeletons laugh and dance and sing as Mexico celebrates life in its embrace of death.”
Judy King

So, the Crafty Chica (http://www.craftychica.com/) had a Day of the Dead Shrine contest and I was so excited about it! I knew I would enter, but had no idea where to start. My dad died in May. He was a rocket scientist, so I had visions of rocket ships and skeletons. I just kept mulling it over. Then, last week, my mom passed away in her sleep. The ceramic cake box jumped into my mind while I was laying in bed on a sleepless night.

I decided to use a photo of the cake as a place to start. I printed three different sizes and pieced it together on foam core board. I used printable, white and clear shrink plastics for the photos of my parents, the candles, skulls and angels as well as a photo of a beaded Virgin of Guadalupe. I did the beading with some instruction from my buddy, Beth. Check out her web site, it's awesome! (http://sparklingsoulstudio.com/default.aspx).When the glitter came out, that was all she wrote. It's everywhere now. I'm not sure I'll ever get it cleaned up. I'll be blowing glitterboogers for a week.
The finished product is below. I shouldn't say "finished" because I'm sure I'll come across things now and then that remind me of my parents and I'll just have to add on. But, for now...