In case you didn't know, among other things, I am a Mexican-American; a Mexican-America who doesn't always feel very connected to her roots. Because of that I try to find ways to learn about and understand my culture just a little bit more. That can manifest itself as my research into my Mexican family/ancestry, my attempts at cooking Mexican food, my dreams of someday being good enough at learning languages to speak Spanish, and in this case creating things that honor my Mexican heritage. Today, I've made calaveras (colorful little skulls) for Dia de los Muertos. So read on to see how I made them and more about how they fit into this Mexican celebration.

Dia de los Muertos, celebrated all over Latin America, is the day that some believe that the spirits of our ancestors and family can return to us, so we honor those that are no longer with us through offerings, prayers, and gatherings. Though it was celebrated for years before Spanish colonization, it is now tied heavily with the Catholic holidays of All Hallows Eve (October 31), All Saints' Day (November 1), and All Souls' Day (November 2). That's why you see calaveras and other Dia de los Muertos items included in Halloween decorations. They have similar origins, but Dia de los Muertos is decidedly not scary and much more celebratory. Check out this article on Nat Geo to learn more about the holiday and this one on Buzzfeed to learn how to celebrate your family by making a Dia de los Muertos altar.

Though I am not myself religious, I liked the idea of making little tokens to remember my ancestors, especially since I'm learning more about them everyday with my family tree research. I though first of making and decorating little sugar skulls, but after reading up on it, it seemed a little complicated. Instead, I've made little skulls (3D and flat) out of cornstarch clay and painted them. And here's how you can too.

Cornstarch Clay Recipe

Ingredients:

1/2 cup cornstarch
1 cup baking soda
3/4 water

Instructions:

Combine all the ingredients together in a pot and stir until there are no lumps. Heat on medium, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens into a thick clay-like paste. Remove it to an airtight container. Cool about 30 minutes so that you don't burn your hands. Shape as desired. I've heard you can let this air dry, but I just put everything in a very low oven (175 degrees F) for a couple of hours. The 3D pieces will take a bit longer. They are done when they are hard and can't bend anymore. This recipe makes about ten medium size (three to four inch) ornaments.

Tips:

The clay can be stored in the fridge for about 3-4 days. Just give it a little bit of time to come to room temperature before you use it.
This clay can crack a bit, as you can see in my pieces. If you do want limit the cracking, I've noticed that the simpler pieces (like the cut-out skulls without the eye and nose details) stayed intact. If you go this route, you just have to put the details in using paint instead.

For the sculpting, everything was very stylized as opposed to anatomically correct. A couple of the larger flat pieces are from a template, but everything else is my own attempts at making skulls. The flowers are shaped with some tools from a cake decorating kit I have lying around. In fact those tools were super useful for this.

For the painting, I just looked at a ton of different photos online for inspiration and just experimented. On some I just used plain acrylic paint with a very tiny paintbrush. I also, actually tried using Sharpies too for more control and they came out good. I'll update the post if I find that either fades or chips off easily.