Dear All,

At Chinese New Year, red and gold good luck decorations are hung to
celebrate and bring good fortune. I wanted everyone to create a decorative design using traditional greetings, colours, and symbols and designs.

The central part of the design is a red and gold printed rectangular
piece of paper which I bought in Chinatown Sydney. These papers come in packets of 100 and cost only a few dollars.

Materials used for this activity include: red and gold foil and card,
black paper, gold paint or markers,red and gold oddments such as glitter, sequins, ribbon, gold stars etc.Glue, black markers, printed Chinese paper, photocopied sheet showing examples of traditional design, border patterns, symbolic plants and animals,greeting phrases etc. I found most of these examples in the book "Art of Different Cultures" by Lilian Coppock.

Procedure:

1. Create a balanced design which includes all of the following- A central printed rectangle on a black or red background, 4 triangular corners in plain or printed paper, 4 animal symbols or character symbols (one in each corner) and their written meanings - such as a butterfly meaning long life or the character for happiness, a traditional good luck border pattern all around the edge(mountains, waves or clouds) in black and painted over in thin gold paint, 2 greetings such as Happy New Year, or 2004 Year of the Monkey, or Kung Hei Fat Choy, written either above and below the central rectangle, or wherever it fits in. Other additions may be a good luck dragon or a monkey.

2. Decorate the page with gold paint, sequins, stars, glitter glue, strips of gold foil or black paper etc.

Most successful part of the lesson?

I think nearly everyone enjoyed cutting, sticking and decorating their designs because of the lovely rich red, black and gold colours. It was important to have lots of interesting bits and pieces so everyone could make their own patterns according to the requirements. I was so impressed with the care many people took to put on the finishing touches with glitter, foil and stars for some really beautiful designs.