How Santos Are Made

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Template Cut First Cuts
You start by cutting a template on a piece of dry Cedar wood. You make the basic cuts by drawing and cutting off where the arms and other major details will be.


Clothes Cuts Carving Hands
You start carving the clothes, arms, face and other details using the tools of the trade: Knives, all kinds of them. Make sure they are very sharp though. Otherwaise you might loss a finger or two. Puerto Rican style Santos are carved out of one piece of wood but their hands. Hand are carved from strips of cedar wood. This is why you see a lot of old Puerto Rican Santos without hands. Watch your fingers!!



Hands Attached
Santo ready for sanding
You make holes on the arms using a drill. Then glue the hands to the arms. You know a Puerto Rican Santo is very old when their hands are lost. This is how the santo looks before sanding, gesso and paint. Sanding takes a lot of time and patience.



Santos ready for gesso 		Painting
What makes a santo are the icons surrounding or hold by him. The iconography is also carved out of Cedar wood and is very important on the santo identity. You can paint the icons but that might cause problems in the future for your santo. The paint is also important on a Santo but paint can be change. If you paint the icons someone might come later and change them, changing the intended identity of the santo. To paint my santos I use commercial gesso and acrylic paints. The finished Santos seen here are on My Santos Page!!