Animal Parade at the Lantern Festival

Here are some of the light animals at the festival - some made from wire and fabric like the other lanterns and some made with rope lights.

These are still made of fabric, even though they look convincingly metal.

Lovely snooty camels...

A fleet of camels (based on one being a ship of the desert).

A rather grand elephant on a podium

And some crystal swans

Lastly a grand parade.

Next time... some religious pics from the festival.

The Quirky Characters

These are some of the cute and quirky characters in the Lantern Festival (see previous few blogs for details).

Giant peaceful pandas... (see silhouettes of people for a sense of scale)

To Tai Chi pandas and those in ancient Chinese hats.

Then there was a street scene with village life including board games, calligraphy, and a lovely old grandpa

And a cute ladybug reading a book.

Next time... an animal parade.

Lanterns and the Water

As promised yesterday... Lanterns and the water. 

Some of the huge metal and cloth lantern shapes at the Chinese New Year Festival in Chiswick Park were placed on the opposite riverbank, so that you couldn't get near to them but you could enjoy their doubled image in the rippling black water.

If I knew how to upload a video so that it actually played, I would... but its never worked so far, so I haven't.

Next time... the quirky characters!

Fairy Tales at the Lantern Festival

Here are the fairy tale models from Chiswick Park's lantern festival.

These are from Aladdin and tales of the Arabian Nights.

And a Cinderella type castle with horse and carriage, with a definite Chinese style.

Next time... lanterns and the water.

Lantern Festival

In Chiswick, for Chinese New Year 2017, the gardens were transformed into a multicultural light experience, with huge detailed lanterns made from wire and fabric.

It almost feels inadequate to call them lanterns... a more accurate description would be works of 3D fabric art lit from within.

We got there slightly before dark but the effect really came into its own once we had wiled away our time in the cafe at the start of the trail and night had fallen.

The journey started with a lit arch of flowers, and followed a winding path through the park, with each new wonder popping up to delight.

There were scenes from traditional tales, religious themes, cute characters, Chinese New Year characters and cultural scenes.

I hear a rumour it's been an annual event for the last three years. We had not heard of it before this year so, if you missed it (like we had previously), there'll be a guided tour over the next few blogs.

Muji and a Pagoda

Having mentioned the Pagoda yesterday (in the Muji and Hogwarts Blog) I thought I'd better let you see it.

But you can't fit a tea-light up the inside of the Pagoda.

Here is my best attempt with an LED instead.

Muji and Hogwarts

One Christmas, someone bought me a cardboard kit from Muji to make a grand stately home. If you follow the tortuous picture instructions, and manage to slot the bits together without bending them too badly in frustration, its well worth the effort.

I think its meant to be French Chateau style but I thought it looked a bit like the models they used for Hogwarts. Once you put one of those colour changing battery candles up the hollow inside, you can imagine the students are duelling inside and sending up sparks that can be seen all the way from Hagrid's hut.

They do a Pagoda too.