Dia De Los Muertos

I became aware of Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead during the time I had my bead store in the Mission District of San Francisco. It was a big celebration that included a procession through the streets ending at a city park where people set up their own altars in memory of their departed loved ones.

As I was cruising around the internet I found Chris Franchetti's Beaded Skull tutorial. It inspired me to make this group of Day if the Dead Calaveras below.

Click on picture to enlarge.

I love them so much that I am working them into a necklace. I'll share that soon. But for now here is a rundown of what I did.

I had these skulls in my stash. (No surprise there... have you seen my bead collection? Come over, I'll show you.) You can find them here, and here on Etsy. I had some tiny aluminum roses in my stash (also from Etsy). You can find them here.

I painted the mouths and noses with some black acrylic paint, glued the roses in the eye sockets of three of them and painted the others.

I followed Chris's tutorial for stitching the crown. I added three sterling silver daisy spacers anchored in place by a seed bead on the top of each one for extra embellishment. I omitted making the loop out of seed beads and made some balled headpins from 20-gauge sterling silver wire to mount them on instead. Before I wire wrapped them closed I added a crystal bead for a bit of sparkle as well as to help secure the crown in place.

And that was it. The necklace is coming along. I'll share it with you soon.