Rainbow Catrina: LGBTQ Pride x Mexican culture

OK, I know it is not the season, but this beautiful lady was one of my December orders I could not show until Christmas, and now I can finally showcase her here since she is in her forever home 🙂
I am super proud of how she turned out!

Also – making these ruffles used up my whole ribbon stash – the longest one was probably 5 meters – crazy, huh? especially taking into consideration how small the doll itself is!

The inspo came from my Client, who found Pride Catrina design on IG profile of a Mexican family-owned small ice-cream making company, celebrating Pride Month.
Sadly – I have no references for them. If you do – feel free to contact me and I will add their page to this post so they would get some visibility 🙂 a company that treats social issues with respect and attention absolutely deserves to get some attention.

Used materials:
– doll: Monster High Frankie Stein
– hair: brushed acrylic fiber, mixed ash-blonde x dark chocolate
– clothes: elastic tulle – body, suede + satin trim – corset, knit super jersey + satin ribbons – skirt piece,
– accessories: cross decor – faux leather base, Swarovski crystal, glitter, nail art decos, crown – floral wire armature, hot glue, paper flowers, Vallejo paints

Media:
– Vallejo Matte Medium: sealant
– Derwent Inktense watercolor pencils
– Vallejo Game Color acrylic paints
– super Sculpey Gloss varnish
– Green Stuff World Chromatic paints

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The Book of Life – Carmen Sanchez

Remember my around-Halloween post about Book of Life movie, and one of main characters – La Muerte? This time I present second female character from same movie – Carmen Sanchez.

Carmen is  main character’s – Manolo – mother.
She is fierce and stubborn lady, that cannot be stopped by any  obstacles when taking care of her family, and that includes being dead 😉
She accompanies her son on his journey through the afterlife to save Land of Remembered and help him fight for Love of his life,  she bitch-slaps main Bad Guy in the movie and attends her son wedding day – because she is a Mom, and Moms Do Things. Being dead is not an excuse!

Carmen wears a black dress with floral pattern ruffles on the bottom half and a red sash tied around her waist. This type of dress comes from the state of Chiapas in Mexico.
And same as all other characters in Land of Remembered – she is portrayed as calaca doll.

At first I wanted to share her in Halloween evening, but sadly I  got sick and any  additional activities had to wait till I get a bit better…  Carmen was  a part of Christmas gift along with La Muerte doll, and both are now in their new home, waiting for Big Night.

 

The Book of Life – La Muerte

Today I will present you La Muerte doll – something special and as close to Halloween theme as possible – perfect for this time of year!
La Muerte is a close resemblance to  Santa Muerte –  a female deity in Mexican folk religion, particularly Folk Catholicism, that is a personification of death itself. She is associated with healing, protection, and safe delivery to the afterlife by her devotees.

On  animated movie The Book of Life [if you didn’t saw it yet – I strongly recommend it! It is great story and really  well made  lesson about other’s beliefs] La Muerte is presented as feminine personification of death and a good hero, who  takes care of all the people – both dead and living.  Her outfit is everything, that Day of the Dead feast needs:  flowers, sugar skulls,  and all the Mexican colors and symbols.
She is perfect! But what else could you expect  from design  that was delivered by Guillermo del Toro?

I must admit – I am strongly attracted to Mexican beliefs about after-life and around-death rits.
I find them more logical and more cheering than anything that my regional, dark and  strongly  puritan version of catholicism has to offer.

I mean – if we believe that  our Loved Ones will go to Land of Remembered / heaven / you name it –  after death – why  should we mourn them, instead of  being happy for them to be in a better place?  I totally understand Mexican Day of the Dead as  a happy holiday, celebrated with big feast  to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died, and help support their spiritual journey.
It is beautiful!

And since christianization of the region associated Dia de Muertos with  catholic  All Saints’ Day – it was obvious time of the year to make some dolls inspired by this  awesome Mexican ritual.

It took me over 7 weeks to finish this piece, but all of almost 200 roses that I used were hand wrapped from the thinnest  satin ribbon I could find. All paper flowers were handmade.
She is also my very first fully-in-acrylics repaint! No pencils were used to  made her faceup this time. No chalks. Only bold lines and strong colors of acrylic paints.

Enjoy!