Day of the Dead and a Contest

Day of the Dead, or Dia de los Muertos, is coming up on November 2nd. For those of you who are not familiar with it, it is a day of honoring your ancestors that is celebrated in Mexico and many of the southern states in the US. One of the customs of the celebration is to make tiny, colorful Sugar Skulls that are decorated with icing as treats for the children. I love making my sugar skulls out of beads. They last longer and have less calories. Ha. I make them as brooches or necklaces and sell them online and at the local crafter's market.

Although most sugar skulls are bone colored. I have a serious market for the black skulls -- mostly among younger customers. This one has a gold tooth - for a bit of whimsey.

One of our local galleries - The Maude Kerns Art Center - has had a Day of the Dead exhibit each year for a very long time and I have always gone to it and promised myself that the next year I would create something to submit for it (it's juried). Well, this year I finally did (and was accepted!). It is titled

 "The Grandmothers" and is a beaded bit that celebrates the lives of my Mother, my maternal Grandmother, and my maternal Great Grandmother. I made the sugar skull out of large, size 8 seed beads. Then I sandwiched photos between glass and did a netting stitch to bind them. Finally, I made a garland of marigolds (used often for Day of the Dead) out of TINY size 18 seedbeads that were like dust specks. Each flower is the size of the end of my little finger and took an hour (each) to make. The base for all of this is an old mantle clock case that I found at a garage sale for $3.

The Exhibit runs from October 14th to November 4th in Eugene, Oregon.

And finally, my favorite bead store, Harlequin Beads, holds a beading contest each month. This month's theme is "Seed Beads", so I created the heart above to enter in it. The prize is a $100 gift certificate in their shop! They sell online as well. So check them out here.