Custom Muertos Mary and Etsy Finds

Calaveras received its first custom order for a Muertos Mary Tealight. We are extremely excited about the project because it combines our customers ideas with our own. The idea is based off of our Muertos Mary statues like this one, only it's customized depending on the ideas of the customer, making an original collaboration that the customer can call his/her own.


If you are interested in ordering a custom Muertos Mary, please visit our Etsy store at CalaverasApparel.etsy.com.

Also, we are a big fan of our fellow Etsians and the time and craft they put into their work. Here are a few of our favorite artists on Etsy when it comes to tiny calaveras pieces.

The SkullQueen makes some beautiful traditional Dia de los muertos cake toppers.


When looking at well crafted figurines, I can't leave out RRMexicoSupply



And, the promised baby calaveras project is underway this weekend. Molding, painting, taking some photos of the process. I'll start the process journal on the project within the next week.

Our Lady of Guadalupe- Day of the Dead Style

A Virgin Mary bust that I created a mold for from an old statue I found at the thrift store. I then made several castings out of plaster, sanded them, then painted them and voila, you have the finished project.






She is a tealight holder as well as a wall hanging. You can check out more photos of her at the Calaveras Apparel shop on Etsy by clicking here.

Please check back soon! The next post will be about my process when it comes to the Virgin Mary busts- I'll let you in on some newbie insider secrets that I learned from scouring the internet and talking with art store employees.

Also, keep an eye out for my new project: painted baby calaveras. Not real skulls, of course, but hand molded and hand-casted like the Marys. Hopefully I can document the mold making process when I start that project.

If you enjoy our Etsy store, please let your friends know about us! We would love to hear from you or them about what you think. Talk soon...!

Process

Here are a few photos from the week that was Calaveras Apparel learning how to screen print. Lots of materials, lots of mistake, but in the end we produced great results. A photo of our first successful screen.




The screen for the shirts that we burned. Took us a few tries to get the emulsion right and took us more than a few tries to figure out the right kind of pressure used when flooding the screen and then pulling it but we finally got it down.



Here is a picture of the few tshirt prints we ran with the new design.



We have been using Speedball screen printing inks. We like the results they produce and since we are a small start up company, we like the fact they are water-based and easier to clean up.