Papel picado and cempasúchil flowers

Paper cempasúchil

Today we worked on decorating our skulls and set them in an "altar". Our "sugar glue" worked out quite well, I thought, and most of the cracked skulls got mended handsomely. Give them time to dry and they may stay whole for a long time. I saw lots of wonderful work.

Enjoy the picture below and watch the video on how to make "papel picado", one of our two projects for our next class.

Our other project will consist on making paper flowers similar to the cempasúchil, or flor de muertos ("flower of the dead"), depicted to the left. These flowers are named like that in Mexico because they are traditionally used during All Saints' Day, the day most families in the Hispanic world visit their cemeteries with flower arrengements.

Our skulls on display.

VIDEO: Happythought- How to make papel picado calaveras: Sugar skull decorations to make for Día de los Muertos!

Baking our "calaveras"

Today we built some "calaveras"  or "calacas" (skulls) with sugar, corn starch,  and vanilla extract (we used some lemon in our morning class). I have them in the oven drying as we speak and I will bring them to class on Tuesday for you to decorate. Some have cracked, but do not worry, we will fix them in class with "glue" (sugar paste) and I will make some extra ones in case you want to decorate those too.

Please check this link and this link for some ideas from last year.

Also, take a look at the two videos below and see you on Tuesday (¡Hasta el martes!)


VIDEO: Day of the Dead - Calaca Face Painting.




VIDEO: How to make a Mexican paper flower for Day of the dead.