Dia de los Muertos Catrina Doll

For the upcoming Dia de los Muertos Celebration here in Old Town, San Diego, I decided to 'revamp' a few of my  old dolls into "Catrina" characters for altars.

This is the first one I've finished.  She's been reincarnated a couple of times, this is her third manifestation.  Originally, she was an adult Alice Liddell, the inspiration for Alice in Wonderland.  Got tired of her pretty quick, she had some proportional issues, so she was recreated as Emily Dickinson. 

When I decided to throw Emily under the bus, I chose to Halloween-ize her into a vampire.  That was last year, and she was never finished.  So this year, I am working on a Day of the Dead altar for the Old Town Saloon and I thought...hey, I know what I can do with this dead in the water vampira. 

Truthfully, I was inspired by the absolutely amazing artist, William Bezek.  He is THE master of all things Halloween and Day of the Dead... and I worship him.   Plus, my sister, who also worships him, just purchased his majestic Vampire creation, "Luca" (with his own glass windowed coffin!!!!) and we felt that Luca needed some female companionship from the other side.  So after Catrina is done watching over the souls who've passed on at the Old Town Saloon, she's going to live with Luca.  Whether he likes it or not.

For her costume, I used an antique mantilla that I beaded for my "Vamp" doll (who got reincarnated into Debbie Reynolds), and an antique Victorian cape.  Thank goodness I'm a packrat and save everything.  Because San Diego is an early Spanish settlement, I chose a less "Late Victorian" Catrina look, and went for more of an early California look for her.

As always, I am a lousy photographer,  as particularly evidenced in the second photo.  Nearly every single photo I took of this doll has weird haze and 'orbs' swirling around her.  Normally, I wouldn't appreciate that.  But in this case....'spooky' works for me!

I've got a couple more reincarnations going, and hopefully, I'll be done with them before November 1st.