HYPERLOCAL NEWS HUB BY THE UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS DEPARTMENT OF JOURNALISM
Allie Cat Arts dives into Dia de los Muertos decoration
By Barbara Werner/ MicroMemphis reporterOctober 30, 2012
To celebrate the “Dia de los Muertos”, the Spanish/Mexican “Day of the Dead,” Allie Cat Arts in Cooper –Young offered different events to celebrate this traditional holiday.
On Saturday, Oct. 27, customers and artists of the Allie Cat Arts gallery store took a workshop to learn how to decorate sugar skulls, a traditional Spanish folk art that is part of the Dia de los Muertos. To commemorate the death of loved ones, the skulls are named after this person and then are laid down on the grave or on an altar in the house. They can also be gifts for still-living people.
On Saturday, Oct. 27, customers and artists of the Allie Cat Arts gallery store took a workshop to learn how to decorate sugar skulls, a traditional Spanish folk art that is part of the Dia de los Muertos. To commemorate the death of loved ones, the skulls are named after this person and then are laid down on the grave or on an altar in the house. They can also be gifts for still-living people.
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The three workshops were chaired by gallery owner Nicole Phillippe.
“I began planning a few weeks ago. I have done a lot of research on the Internet and talked to people of the Hispanic community,” Phillippe said, describing the preparation for the workshop. While she teaches art full time in elementary school, she works nights and weekends in her new store. "I am making 'Day of the Dead' projects with my children at school. I always wanted to make sugar skulls in a group with a few people and more time. So I had this idea of the workshop and brought all the stuff.” “I have made the sugar skulls in preparatory work for the workshop. They are really easy to make but they are a little bit time consuming. The recipe is basically sugar, molten butter and water, which you mix up. Then you pressed them into a mold,"Phillippe described the process of sugar skulls, which are not edible, even if it sounds like they are. |
Nicole Phillippe, workshop leader and owner of Allie Cat Arts (photo by Barbara Werner)
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Altar with sugar skulls and skulls art for "Dia de los Muertos" in Allie Cat Art ( photo by Barbara Werner)
Sugar skulls without decoration
(photo by Barbara Werner)
"The large skulls like we decorated, they need to dry for five or six hours. Then you flip it over; dig out the middle of the hole, so it dries better. Let that dry over night. You can use the icing to glue the two pieces together- so you have the front of the skull and the back of the skull. You let that dry and then you can decorate it. It has taken me a couple of weeks to prepare them.”
The original sugar skulls are made in small batches by candy makers, who need five to six month to prepare enough. These skulls are then sold in outdoor village markets in Mexico or Spain.
The original sugar skulls are made in small batches by candy makers, who need five to six month to prepare enough. These skulls are then sold in outdoor village markets in Mexico or Spain.
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The participants of the workshops could decorate the plain sugar skulls with different colors of icing. For the decoration they could add feathers, glitter and other adornment as well. After they were finished, they had to dry for 20 to 30 minutes.
When the sugar skulls dry they last forever. Participant Terri Blackmore was excited. “Every year at this time I wanted to buy a sugar skull and they always cost $65-70," Blackmore said while she looked at her self-made skull. "Then I saw that she had a workshop and we can make our own. I always wanted one, because I am into Halloween and I like pretty decorated skulls.” |
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Terri Blackmore and her self-made sugar skull (photo by Barbara Werner)
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“I didn’t have a picture in my head when I decorated my sugar skull. I was sitting on it for one and a half hours with 30 minutes just for the eyes. I am too shaky doing the little perfect details.”
Blackmore didn’t dedicate the sugar skull to anyone; it was just for the art. “I was afraid of making it too ugly and than having the name of someone I loved on it,” joked Blackmore. Most of the workshop participants have taken their sugar skulls home to use it as decoration for their houses on Halloween and are not putting them on graves. For Phillippe the workshops were a success, not only because the participants had a lot of fun but also to promote her new gallery to new customers. "Everybody here had fun and it was a great social experience. I will definitely come back next year,” Blackmore promised Phillippe. “Next year it’s going to be way better," said Phillippe, who has already to started to plan for next year. "We are going to do more sugar skull workshops and other Day of the Dead things. Maybe sculpture projects, like skeleton figures.” |
Barbara Werner covers Arts & Culture for MicroMemphis.
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