The exterior of the carved wood is coated with a primer substance called kaolin. Every tihu has all of these colors incorporated into its costume. The use of the same materials to decorate the dolls as to paint the bodies of the kachina dancers is a significant link between the two manifestations. Infants, being in their first stage of development, receive as gifts flat figures, putsqatihu , which can be hung on cradleboards. Both boys and girls receive putsqatihu.
Toddlers receive putstihu taywa'yta , dolls with flat bodies and more three-dimensional faces.
At the third stage, Katsinam present the girls with muringputihu , figures with cylindrical bodies and fully carved heads. This parallel is yet another connection between the spirits, the men who represent the spirits, and the spirit figures those men carve for the youth. In recent years, Hopi people have begun to create katsina dolls to sell to Euroamerican tourists. Their skillfully carved and decorated appearance draws the attention of people who do not understand their significance, and the monetary income from selling these authentic tithu is irresistible to reservation-bound Hopi people. They all continue to hold power, however, even if they were not constructed with the respect and spiritual mindset of a real tihu.