Celebrating Life with the Day of the Dead

The season has certainly had a big part in my designs lately, with autumnal palettes, leaves and skulls galore.    

This week I've been big on Sugar Skulls. I'm not sure exactly what it is about the skulls that has me so fascinated, but I do find them incredibly beautiful.  Maybe it is the tradition behind them?  The Day of the Dead, or  Dia de los Muertos, is celebrated throughout Mexico with friends and family gathering to remember loved ones who have died.  It centers around a belief that the gates of heaven open for a short time and allow the spirits of lost children and loved ones to reunited with their families for one day.  How beautiful is that?  Although traditions vary from area to area, the holiday is generally not a sad, sober one; it's filled with love and color, food and flowers!  It is focused not on death but on remembering life.  If you are interested in learning about it, you can find much more information and lots of great photos here.  

Sugar skulls, or Calaveras, are often used as part of the Day of the Dead offerings.  They can be made of sugar or clay, but either way, they're colorful and fun.  

I have been using some skulls in my micro macrame jewelry pieces lately, and something clicked the other day (in the order of the head slap, duh "I could've had a V-8" kind of way) and I decided to Day of the Dead it up a little.

I added a riot of color to a macrame bracelet with a TierraCast skull button in the middle and came up with my own interpretation of a sugar skull.  

I've also been busy furiously trying to get items listed in my new Handmade at Amazon shop to be ready when they decided to go live.  I'm an old dog and this is very much a new trick, so it's been trying.  If you're working on a shop there yourself (or if you just need a good laugh today), pop over to the my post on the Love My Art Jewelry blog and read all about it.  Happy reading!