The Origins of Voodoo: A Mini-Essay

     Just like the indigenous people of North America and the Aztecs and Mayans of Mesoamerica, enslaved Africans in the Americas blended their religious ideologies with those of Christianity to develop hybrid faiths, including voodoo. Originating in the Caribbean during the sixteenth century as the slave trade brought Africans into the area to work on sugar plantations, voodoo evolved over time as it spread into other regions, resulting in a complex web of beliefs and practices which vary from society to society.[1] At its heart, though, the voodoo religion – whether practiced in Haiti or Louisiana – maintains that the divine god Bondye created the universe and, because he is too busy to deal with it, appointed loa to oversee and participate in its functions. These loa can be both benevolent and malevolent, so humans must perform ceremonies to either appease the good loa or ward off the evil loa. Due to its similarity to Catholicism’s God and saints, voodoo paired well with the religion of colonists and Africans incorporated Christian figures and symbols into the faith: the cross became associated with the crossroads between the living and dead, the trinity became a representation of the loa, the Twins, and the Dead, and the Virgin Mary and other saints served as representations of various loa.[2] Sadly, early colonizers perceived voodoo as a product of the Devil and worked to vilify its beliefs and those who practiced it, with those perceptions still maintained today. Yet, as anthropologist Wade Davis explains, voodoo during the colonial period as well as in modern society became a way for Africans to understand themselves and their role within the world: “It’s not just a body of religious ideas, but a notion of how children should be raised, a notion of what education means, an awareness of politics.”[3]

Works Referenced

 

Handwerk, Brian. “Voodoo a Legitimate Religion, Anthropologist Says.” National Geographic News, 21 October 2002.

 

Stephens, John Richards. “True Voodoo.” Voodoo: Strange and Fascinating Tales and Lore. Ed. John Richard Stephens. New York: Fall River Press, 2010.

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[1] Stephens, 1-5.
[2] Stephens, 1-5.
[3] Handwerk.

Oracle Frame

$15 - $20 (based on 2024 prices)
Makes one frame

While perusing the Halloween merchandise at one of the big-box stores, I spotted a frame with a single eye in it. I was immediately inspired to craft my own version based on a fortuneteller theme. It also gave me the chance to experiment with air clay. I normally use modeling clay for these types of projects; however, I wanted to see if air clay would be better. Sadly, I was not impressed because the clay shrank more than I anticipated and I had to add extra clay to compensate for the reduction.

• One 7” x 10” oval picture frame
• One sheet of copy paper with vintage fortunetelling illustrations printed on it
• At least four tablespoons of dark roasted coffee grounds
• One pan large enough to soak the copy paper
• One 4 oz. bottle of decoupage medium
• Two small, white ping pong balls (1 3/8” in diameter)
• One 1 oz. package of red air clay
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat beige*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat gray*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat pink*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in glossy white*
• One 0.44 oz. bottle of clear nail polish*
• One package of false eyelash clusters
  

1. Coffee stain the copy paper by boiling about twelve cups of water and adding the coffee. The longer you allow the coffee to brew, the darker the stain will become. Likewise, greater amounts of coffee will yield a richer stain. Since I wanted uneven spots rather than a unified discoloration, I placed the paper on a baking sheet, splashed coffee and grounds onto the surface, allowed the liquid to sit for a few minutes, and then moved it to a space to dry.

2. Disassemble the frame, removing the backing and the glass. Then, tear apart the paper, isolating individual illustrations, and cover the entire surface of the frame with the pieces. This process works best if you move in stages: apply a layer of decoupage medium to one section, press the paper down until it sticks, and repeat the process. If you want to add an additional level of age once the paper has dried, you can water down brown acrylic paint and brush it over the frame.

3. Cut the two ping pong balls in half and glue them to the frame’s backing. Where you place them will determine the location for the oracle eyes, so you may want to play with their placement prior to adhering them. Due to the size of my frame, I was only able to incorporate three eyes; however, you can add more by either increasing the size of the frame, using smaller ping pong balls, or clustering the eyes closer together.

4. Use the air clay to build up flesh around the eyes and across the surface of the backing. Although you can go for a smooth appearance, lots of divots and wrinkles will give the prop more visual interest, especially after it is painted. Also, keep in mind that the air clay will shrink as it dries, so you will need to make the flesh larger than the frame to accommodate this.

5. Once the air clay has fully dried, give it two coats of beige paint and the eyes three coats of glossy white paint. For the time-pressed haunter, you might consider buying air clay in beige to skip part of this step and just paint the eyes with glossy white.

6. Smudge pink paint along the surface of the skin, focusing on the raised areas to make the clay look like flesh. Then, use a wash of gray to darken the eyes’ surfaces and give them a murky appearance. You may want to experiment with the consistency prior to doing this: the more water you add, the fainter/lighter the wash; the less water you add, the deeper/darker the wash.

7. To give the eyes further shine and seal the wash, coat them in glossy nail polish. Following this, glue fake lashes to the eyelids and randomly in the skin. Try not to overthink your application. Rather, make the lashes sparse and sporadic for a creepier look.

8. Reattach the backing to the frame, gluing it in place for a sturdier hold. If you want to add further embellishments, like voodoo beads or talismans made of aged bones, you can cater the prop to your haunt’s theme.

*You will not use the entire bottle’s content for this project.

"Origin of the Marble Forest" (A Poem)

Similar to Emily Dickinson’s “One need not be a Chamber to be Haunted” and Elizabeth Jennings’ “Ghosts,” Gregory Orr’s “Origin of the Marble Forest” uses the concept of ghosts in a metaphorical way. In this short, five-line poem, the narrator refuses to allow people associated with their past to slip away into faded memories. Rather, they want to preserve them, making them eternal and ever-present.

Childhood dotted with bodies.
Let them go, let them
be ghosts.
No, I said,
make them stay, make them stone.[1]

Works Referenced

Orr, Gregory. “Origin of the Marble Forest.” City of Salt. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1995. 3.
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[1] Orr, 3.

Corpse Skull

$10 - $15 (based on 2024 prices)
Makes one skull

I spent some time during the summer of 2024 experimenting with corpsing techniques. I have never been a fan of the plastic-and-heatgun method, specifically because of the toxic fumes it creates. So, I decided to find alternate processes. Building on the tactic I used to make the fake leather for Hugh Crane’s book, I used papier mache and tissue paper. The results turned out better than I expected and, with a little more refining, it can become an effective alternative.

• One human-size plastic skull
• One 8 oz. bottle of all-purpose tacky glue
• One newspaper (roughly twenty pages)
• Three to four sheets of white tissue paper (20” x 20” per sheet)
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat black*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat brown*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat gray*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat tan*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat white*

1. Thoroughly wash and dry the skull, removing any decorative elements to give the glue a clean surface to adhere to. For aesthetic purposes, I chose just to corpse the cranium and saved the jaw for another project; however, you can corpse both, gluing the jaw agape for a gnarled look.

2. Make the papier mache paste by mixing ½ cup of glue and ½ cup of water in a bowl. Try to use a sealable container. This gives you the ability to store the mixture for a day or two between applications. Then, cut the newspaper into strips, soak them in the paste, and apply them to the skull. To make the process more manageable, keep the strips at a reasonable size and only apply a few layers at a time, allowing each layer to fully dry before adding more.

3. Once you have built up the facial features, repeat the process in step two with tissue paper, using it to create wrinkled flesh, mangled tissue around the mouth and nose, and wounds along the crown of the skull. How much paper you use depends on how wrinkled you want the skin, so you may need more sheets of tissue paper if you plan for a rumpled appearance.

4. After the final layer of tissue paper dries, give the skull two to three coats of tan paint and the teeth and any exposed bone a coat or two of white. This gives the prop a uniform base and helps cover any of the newspaper which is still visible. Although I used acrylic paint for this process, the time-pressed haunted can utilize tan spray paint for a quicker application.

5. Working from dark to light, stipple brown and gray paint onto the skull to make the flesh look aged. Try not to overthink your application because a random application will look more natural and give the skull extra visual interest.

6. To mute the colors and add further depth, apply a wash of black paint to the skin, ensuring the liquid settles into all the cracks and fissures. You may want to experiment with the consistency prior to doing this: the more water you add, the fainter/lighter the wash; the less water you add, the deeper/darker the wash.

7. Using the same methods in step six, build up washes of black and brown paint – working from light to dark – to age the teeth and any exposed bone. You can also use a fine-tipped brush to outline the spaces between the teeth and where they connect to the skull with black paint.  

8. Paint the insides of the nose black and then, using a razor blade, make a slit for the eye and darken its interior with black paint. The second half of this step is entirely optional, but it gives the skull more character.  

9. If you want, you can embellish the skill with additional details, such as worms crawling out of its eye or patches of hair, to cater the prop to your haunt’s needs.

*You will not use the entire bottle’s content for this project.

The Aztec Origins of Dia de los Muertos: A Mini-Essay

          Unlike many European cultures, the Aztecs of Mesoamerica did not fear the uncertainty of death. Rather, they perceived death as a release from the burdens of life and honored the god of death, Mictlantechuhtli. According to Aztec lore, there were thirteen levels of the heavens and nine layers in the underworld, with how someone died dictating where they went: brave warriors who died honorably in war ascended to the highest level as butterflies and hummingbirds, whereas cowards who faced death with dishonor were relegated to the lowest level of the underworld. Because the journey to the afterlife – Mictlán – was a long and arduous process filled with trials which lasted four years, relatives of the dead held yearly festivals to honor the deceased on their journey, with one occurring in the fall when it was believed the dead returned to visit the living. Food from the harvest was laid out and relatives remained in a squatting position throughout the night to prevent themselves from catching the gaze of returning spirits.[1] The arrival of Spanish colonists during the sixteenth century and the forced assimilation and Christianization of the Aztecs, in turn, blended beliefs and traditions into a unique holiday: the Christian practice of visiting cemeteries and adorning graves with flowers gave birth to arches of marigolds and the Christian feasts of All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day merged into the Aztec harvest festival.[2]

Works Referenced

Williams, Kitty, and Stevie Mack. Day of the Dead. Layton, UT: Gibbs Smith, 2011.
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[1] Williams and Mack, 20-22.
[2] Williams and Mack, 26-27.

Wooden Crate

$50 - $60 (based on 2022 prices)
Makes one crate

At the end of 2022, I was asked to make a set of props for a local theater’s production of Christmas Belles. Being unable to make many props for the Halloween season, I jumped at the opportunity to do something creative. For this prop, I used the painting technique for the withered boards to create a wooden crate one of the characters carried offstage. The director wanted something large and heavy looking but extremely lightweight, so I built the entire thing out of foam insulation boards.

• Four 24” x 24” boards of foam insulation
• One package of wooden toothpicks (at least 132 picks)
• One 4 oz. bottle of all-purpose tacky glue*
• One 8 oz. can of exterior paint in flat white*
• One 10 oz. can of interior/exterior, fast-drying spray paint in flat tan
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat black*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat brown*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat khaki*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat tan*

1. Cut one of the foam boards into two 12” x 24” sections and another board into two 12” x 22” sections, reserving the excess for the crate’s trim in step five. How large you decide to make the crate will impact the dimensions of these pieces. For a smaller version, you can go with two 6” x 24” sections and two 6” x 11” sections.

2. Evenly space toothpicks along the sides of the boards, leaving ¾” sticking out. These will serve as nails to help hold the boards in place and give the crate extra stability.  

3. Align the panels along the edges of one of the 24” x 24” boards to form the base of the box. Then, run a small line of glue between the seams and push everything together, driving the toothpicks into the foam. If you elected to make a smaller version of the prop, the board for the base will need to measure 12” x 12”.

4. Repeating the process in steps two and three, line the edges of the panels with toothpicks, run a small line of glue along their edges, and attach the second 24” x 24” board to complete the box. Here, too, you will need to reduce the board’s size to 12” x 12” for a smaller version.

5. Cut the excess foam reserved from step one into four 21” x 1.5” sections, four 24” x 1.5” sections, four 11” x 1.5” sections, four 16” x 2.5” sections, four 21” x 2.5” sections, and four 24” x 2.5” sections. As before, you can cut these dimensions in half for a smaller crate.

6. Glue the four 16” x 2.5” sections and four 21” x 2.5” sections to two of the 14” x 24” ends of the crate on opposite sides of each other, leaving a half-inch overhang. For added support, drive toothpicks into them. Then, repeat the process with the four 11” x 1.5” sections and 24” x 2.5” sections on the remaining two 14” x 24” ends of the crate. Finally, attach the four 21” x 1.5” sections and four 24” x 1.5” sections to the box’s bottom and top.

7. Use the blunt end of a pen to create wood grain, nail holes, and slats in the foam. You can also use a wood-burning tool or soldering iron to do this; however, if you do, ensure you that you wear a mask and perform the task outside because the fumes are toxic.  

8. On a newspaper-lined surface in a well-ventilated area, give the entire box two coats of exterior paint. This will serve as a barrier to protect the foam from the spray paint applied in step nine. For the time-pressed haunter, you can use tan paint for this process and completely skip step nine.  

9. Give the entire crate a light coat of tan spray paint, allowing portions of the white paint to show through. This will help give the wooden patina more depth by contrasting the darker tan with the lighter white.

10. Moving from dark to light, brush hues of brown onto the crate to give the illusion of wood. I found applying several globs of paint to the box and using a paper towel to smudge it works well. Also, for the best results, smear the paint in the same direction to create a uniform grain and add additional paint to certain areas to make discolorations.

11. To finish the patina and add a level of distress, brush black paint between the slits and into the nail holes. You can also smear black in random places to give the prop further depth.

12. Although the director of the play wanted the prop to remain relatively simple, you can embellish it with additional details, such as the word fragile written across the side or weathered shipping labels adhered to its surface, to cater the prop to your haunt’s theme.

*You will not use the entire bottle’s content for this project.

Voodoo Wreath

$20 - $25 (based on 2023 prices)
Makes one wreath

With one of the wreaths left over from 2017’s haunt, I spent some downtime during the summer of 2023 creating a prop I planned to make for 2015’s voodoo theme but never completed. For a future build, I think it would be interesting to use tarot cards rather than playing cards to cater this prop to a sorceress motif.

• One twelve-inch grapevine wreath
• Two decks of playing cards
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks
• Three twenty-four-inch strands of beads
• Three four-inch ceramic skulls
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat black*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat white*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in glossy red*
• One five-pound flour sack
• At least four tablespoons of dark roasted coffee grounds
• One pan large enough to soak the flour sack
• One Styrofoam ball (two inches in diameter)
• One Styrofoam cone (three inches in height)
• Two to three yards of brown twine
• One package of plastic coins (roughly thirty coins)
• One package of rubber snakes (roughly six snakes)
• Two small buttons
• Three small safety pins
• Five quilting pins

1. Reserve the aces and jokers for step two, combine both decks of cards, and shuffle them. Then, beginning along the outer edge, glue the cards to the wreath, building up layers and varying their patterns. You want them as random as possible, so try not to clutter cards from the same suit together. For added visual interest, purchase decks with different colors or designs.

2. Once the entire wreath is covered, use the aces and jokers reserved from the previous step to fill in any gaps at the front. For thematic purposes, I wanted these two cards more visible than the others; however, you can always pick alternate cards – or no cards at all – to be highlighted.  

3. Weave the strands of beads through the cards, using a small dab of glue to hold them in place. Although I made random passes to create a haphazard design, you can be more deliberate for a structured pattern.

4. Paint the ceramic skulls white, accenting their features with black, and then affix them to the wreath, making them as visible as possible. If you want to give the prop additional color, consider using alternate hues that match your haunt’s color scheme.

5. Boil enough water to completely submerge the flour sack and pour it into the pan. Add the coffee. The longer you allow the coffee to brew, the darker the stain will become. Likewise, greater amounts of coffee will produce a richer stain. Submerge the sack in the coffee mixture and soak it until it reaches the color you desire. I soaked mine for four days and scattered the coffee grounds over the top of the fabric to add spots. Remove the sack from the water and allow it to dry.

6. As the flour sack dries, make a template for the voodoo doll by tracing the outline for the Styrofoam ball and cone onto a sheet of paper. You want enough fabric to thoroughly cover the foam, so give yourself at least a one-inch border around their shape.  

7. Position the pattern on the sack, trace its outline, and cut it out. This will give you two pieces: a front and back. Following this, place the foam body between the two pieces and sew them together, using scraps from the sack as padding to fill the arms and legs. Because the fabric is rather thick, use a darning needle to thread the twine through the cloth. Also, you want the needlework to look messy and uneven, giving the doll a disheveled appearance.  

8. Form the doll’s face with the buttons and safety pins. For visual interest, I used buttons with different colors and sizes. After this, bind a tuft of raffia with black thread and glue it and one of the plastic coins to the doll.  

9. Pour a small amount of red paint into the palm of your hand, spread it around, and use it to pat a bloody handprint onto the doll. For haunters who do not want to get their hands dirty, you can wear a rubber glove during this process.

10. Finish the voodoo doll by inserting the quilting pins into random portions of its body. To prevent the pins from falling out, apply a small dab of glue to their tips before inserting them into the foam.  

11. Attach the voodoo doll to the wreath and finish the prop by accenting it with a random assortment of fake coins and rubber snakes. What you choose, though, is entirely up to your haunt’s theme. For instance, you can adhere tickets and striped balls for a circus motif or dice and mini liquor bottles for a casino theme.

12. If the wreath did not come with a hanging loop, you can create one with the excess twine (or use steel wire for added support).

*You will not use the entire bottle’s content for this project.