Monatsthema September

My theme of the month this time is, Dia de los muertos. Maybe you've heard of it before?! It is a Mexican holiday for the deceased.

National Geographic writes:

First things first: [012752 012751]Día de Muertos, the Day of the Dead, is not a Mexican version of Halloween. Although the two holidays are related, they are very different from each other in their traditions and atmosphere. Halloween is traditionally considered a dark night of terror and doom, while Día de los Muertos stretches over three days in an explosion of color and life-affirming joy. Of course, the theme is death, but the whole point is to show his love and respect for deceased family members. In villages and towns across Mexico, revelers flaunt colorful costumes[012753 012752] and makeup, hold pageants and parties, sing, dance, and offer offerings to loved ones who have died.

The Día de Muertos is a celebration of life and death. It originated in Mexico, but is now celebrated throughout Latin America. Typical are the colorful calaveras (skulls) and calacas (skeletons).

The deceased are thus decorated with a kind of shrine with things (food as well as hobbies) that they liked during their lifetime. Are you also wondering what would be in your shrine? For me it would probably be too much to put in one room, but when it comes to food, I'm modest about it and wish for jacket potatoes with cottage cheese and bread.

Since I want to venture into unknown territory with this topic in general, I dared to bake mini breads right away.

For this I got PolymerClay in a cream tone, after my first attempt (mixed from existing colors) is only suitable for pumpkin or cornbread.

I kneaded this hard, stubborn clay (for hours) until soft - if you have a tip on how to do it easier, please leave it there THANK YOU!

Then I kneaded a thin flat cake and put Kaiser baking soda on it (maybe I have to find out exactly in the next attempt, the bread will certainly be even more "fluffy" with more baking powder)

Knead the baking soda into the patties with a little water until it was a slimy ball. I was then able to shape them into small loaves of bread. To get them in halfway equal sizes, I formed a sausage about 1cm thick and then cut off pieces of the same size. As with real bread, the "dough" must also be cut here.

For the brown crust, I planed pastel chalk in different shades of brown and orange with a knife. The powder was easy to apply with a dry (make-up) brush.

Then put it in the oven at 130 degrees for 15 minutes according to the instructions.

In the end, I just cut off a slice while it was warm.

And I tried another new technique:

First, I printed out an image from the laser printer that I wanted to transfer to the wood. I can't say if this technique works with an inkjet printer, but I'll try it out.

I coated the wood evenly but thinly with glue (Ponal Express) and then glued the picture (the printed side into the glue) and pressed it evenly with a squeegee and after drying, carefully rubbed the paper with a wet cloth. If here and a bit of picture is rubbed away and the wood shimmers through, it has a nice vintage character.

Skulls, skulls and more skulls. The printed miniatures always get several layers of paint, which has to dry well between the layers, so there is a colorful mess on my tray here. The finished minis will be available in the shop from the 15th.

A few new articles on the topic are still in the works ....

Today's dirty cacti:

Who were first given a green coat of paint.

Dannach a washing (strongly diluted color) with dark green.

The details repainted with an ultra-fine brush.

And finally glued on a flower.

My handicraft table and head is full of new ideas, so I spontaneously decided to show more of the things that don't just fit a fixed topic. I will finish this topic and then you can keep me up to date in the Miniature Manufactory Watching.