Suzhou Colored-lantern Making is a traditional handicraft of the Chinese nation, and it has been known as “Su Lantern” in history. Dating back in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, it got flourished in the Tang and Song dynasties. Yuanxiao Lantern Festival has a long history in China.
The craft of Suzhou Colored-lantern Making is very exquisite, and the picture is rich and colorful. With landscape and figures, birds and animals, flowers and plants, fish and insects painted, it is not only bright and brilliant, but also of ingenious making.
For example, there is a kind of “tick painting colored lantern” and “revolving scenic lantern”, on which a variety of characters are set. When candles are lit in the lantern, hot and cold air will convect, then the characters will circulate in rotation. So interesting it is!
In manufacturing skills, the Su Lanterns take silk, paper, bamboo and lead wire as the main materials, and it is a collection of four pure handmade skills, namely, pricking, pasting, cutting and drawing. The manufacturing skills of Su Lanterns are to show the craft beauty of colored-lantern making by artists with their dexterous hands. Artists need to fully master the style design, paste the body of the lantern, go through color process, paper cutting and painting decoration and other process skills. Only by using hands and brain together to achieve mastery through a comprehensive study, can exquisite Suzhou Colored-Lantern be made.
