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Welcome to the Chinese New Year edition of the Virtual Refrigerator! This weekly art link-up is co-hosted by Homeschool Coffee Break, Every Bed of Roses, Raventhreads, and This Day Has Great Potential. We all cordially invite you to add your link sharing the art that's on your Virtual Refrigerator and then hop over to the other blogs and admire what's on their Fridges!
So I did have this great plan to do a quick art project or two in honor of the Chinese New Year which starts on Monday, but unfortunately the plan didn't get out of my head and put into action on time. On time for the Virtual Fridge anyway. We'll still have time to do it for Monday if we wish. Also I realized we didn't have any red paper, so that was a downer. I don't know a lot about Chinese New Year traditions, but since we've done a few things in past years as far as crafts, I've got a little bit to pass along.
If you've ever cut out paper snowflakes to decorate during the winter, you've got a bit of experience with something very similar to Chinese paper-cutting. Paper as we know it was a creation of a Chinese court official in about 100AD. At first paper was expensive so only the wealthiest or royal Chinese people could afford it for crafting paper cuttings. As paper became more affordable, all classes of society participated and paper cutting became an important folk art. Today, at festival times, cut paper designs are sold and are given as gifts and greetings. Traditional designs feature animals (often pandas, dragons, or tigers), birds, or flowers. For the Chinese New Year, the animal sign for the year is a popular choice. (The Year of the Monkey begins on February 8, 2016). The traditional color of paper used is red because it represents good luck and success.
A number of years ago, Kennady did make some simple Chinese paper cuts in a co-op class, so those are the pictures I am sharing today.
I have templates to do papercuts of the Chinese characters for "Happiness" and for "Spring" so hopefully we can give those a try in the next day or two.
Chinese calligraphy is also an art form, and in co-op we gave that a try as well, painting a few Chinese characters.
So I did have this great plan to do a quick art project or two in honor of the Chinese New Year which starts on Monday, but unfortunately the plan didn't get out of my head and put into action on time. On time for the Virtual Fridge anyway. We'll still have time to do it for Monday if we wish. Also I realized we didn't have any red paper, so that was a downer. I don't know a lot about Chinese New Year traditions, but since we've done a few things in past years as far as crafts, I've got a little bit to pass along.
If you've ever cut out paper snowflakes to decorate during the winter, you've got a bit of experience with something very similar to Chinese paper-cutting. Paper as we know it was a creation of a Chinese court official in about 100AD. At first paper was expensive so only the wealthiest or royal Chinese people could afford it for crafting paper cuttings. As paper became more affordable, all classes of society participated and paper cutting became an important folk art. Today, at festival times, cut paper designs are sold and are given as gifts and greetings. Traditional designs feature animals (often pandas, dragons, or tigers), birds, or flowers. For the Chinese New Year, the animal sign for the year is a popular choice. (The Year of the Monkey begins on February 8, 2016). The traditional color of paper used is red because it represents good luck and success.
A number of years ago, Kennady did make some simple Chinese paper cuts in a co-op class, so those are the pictures I am sharing today.
I have templates to do papercuts of the Chinese characters for "Happiness" and for "Spring" so hopefully we can give those a try in the next day or two.
Chinese calligraphy is also an art form, and in co-op we gave that a try as well, painting a few Chinese characters.
Some of these craft ideas came from the book Geography Through Art which is a favorite in our homeschool. It's a combination of cultural geography information and art projects inspired by different cultures and folk art from around the world. (See my post My Favorite Geography Resource for more details.)
which is a favorite in our homeschool. It's a combination of cultural geography information and art projects inspired by different cultures and folk art from around the world. (See my post My Favorite Geography Resource for more details.)
Join us by sharing your art posts here on the Virtual Fridge!
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3 comments:
Oh wow. Those look amazing!
These are so pretty!
These are so neat. I think my oldest would love to do some of this paper crafting. Putting it on my mental to-do list. - Lori
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