The mexican holiday ‘Dia de Muertos’ – which translates to Day of the Dead – is getting more and more popular in other parts of the world.
In Anglophone Countries it is referred to ‘Dia de los Muertos’.
It is a multi-day holiday from October 31st to November 2nd and so coincides with the Western Christian holidays of All Saint’s Eve, All Saint’s Day and All Soul’s Day.
It involves family and friends.
They gather around to remember friends and family members who have died.
Traditions include building private altars honoring the deceased.
One symbol of the holiday is the skull. It is used in various ways and often decorated with flowers and other graphics.
(for more information on ‘Dia de Muertos’ take a look into Wikipedia)
So I decided to decorate my turquoise skull beads with some resin flowers and turn them into earrings 😎
I used some resin flower cabochons that were small enough to fit the eye sockets.
Fill the eye sockets of one side with glue and place the flower on the ball.
If the glue ball was too big and the glue wells out a bit take a cotton swab and clean it away.
Place the skull between two pens or similair that the flower lies on top during drying of the glue.
When this side has dried repeat the steps with the other side.
Now that the skulls are finished lets make earrings out of them.
You’ll need – in addition to the skull beads the following items:
- head pins
- bead caps (optional)
- other beads (optional)
- round nose pliers
- flat nose pliers
- ear hooks
First put all the beads in the desired order onto the headpin.
I used one with an embellishment on the end.
You can also take a simple one and – if you want – use other beads underneath the skull or none at all.
It is all up to your liking.
I think the little “hat” I made with those bead caps and seedbeads look interesting. 🙂
Now you need to make a loop with the head pin on top of the skull.
The last step is to hang the dangle into the ear hook – and you’re done!
