The lunar new year begins this week (on the 12th). The most famous celebrations of the lunar new year are the Chinese. I thought in preparation of the Chinese New Year I would share two paper quilling books both in Chinese style that has projects that will lend with the Chinese New Year as well as spring and more. The first book is Paper Quilling Adorable Animals Chinese Style by Zhu Liqun Paper Arts Museum.
This book begins with the animals of the Chinese Zodiac. This new year will be the year of the Ox. There is an ox project in the book. I was going to make it as a sample of the ox but realized I really didn't want it for anything at this moment and decided to do other crafts than paper quilling. I'll have to share those later, but let's just say I remember how fun making a dollhouse is.
I love how the book gives information about the animals in the Chinese culture and what each represents. Here is a sample page of the mouse. You can see the information about the mouse as well as some of the photos in the tutorials.
The book is very specific from the colors to use to the steps to make the shapes and more. Besides the Chinese Zodiac animals there are lucky animals according to the Chinese culture. A perfect one for spring would be this duck.
I love the details and the fact that the water is also included in the project. Again you can see the details that are included from the colors for the duck and water to some of the shapes you need to make and how they fit together. The lucky animals include the duck, panda, peacock, heron, cat and butterfly, tortoise, goldfish, bat and deer, phoenix, and elephant. Each animal is discussed including its meaning in the Chinese culture, so this book provides more than just an instruction book but shares about the culture as well.
Our second book is Paper Quilling Chinese Style: Create unique paper quilling projects that bridge Western crafts and traditional Chinese arts by Zhu Liqun Paper Arts Museum. This book has animal projects as well as other projects. A perfect one for the Chinese New Year would be the fireworks project.
This book is in similar style to the other. It includes a bit about the object of the project in the Chinese culture. Fireworks are of course part of the Chinese New Year and are believed to have been first created by the Chinese. The instructions are clear and have many photos to follow.
The rabbit would be a wonderful spring project or project for Easter. It is so cute. There are also loads of flowers and spring projects in this book. It has introductory projects as well as advanced projects.
These books give you the skills to make beautiful paper quilling art in Chinese style. I hope you will check them out.
