When Stars Descend Among Us - Beautiful Sunday
My Share for #BeautifulSunday initiated by @ace108
During December lanterns can be seen all over our country. Some has elaborate designs, some are beautifully lit but there are some that are made with love. Let me share with you today one of the events in our city where students create their own Christmas lanterns. A yearly event which showcases the talents of the students from our public high school. Come with me today to see unique and beautiful lanterns from the Philippines.
When Stars Descend Among Us
The stars are on display in the gymnasium and during this time there were not much people around. This year I noticed that there were fewer entries than last year. Still each design is unique made from different recycled material.
From here I could already see the ones that stands out and caught my attention right away. I especially love the ones that are made from natural materials. But each one has it's own charm and showcases our culture. I will try to connect with each star and give you my own translation of its representation.
This star is made from sacks of rice, shells, feathers and plastic bottles. Our country used to be an exporter of rice but lately there has been a rice crisis. Our government depended on imported rice to have enough supply for the people. As I noticed the sacks are all from imported rice.
As usual in every lantern there is always the Nativity Scene to remind us of the birth of Jesus.
This entry has been made from all natural materials which can be found all over the city.
The design is very clean and evenly made. I could only imagine the time spent in making this star.
These dried pods is from a tree called Ipil Ipil which can be found all over our country. Gathering them, drying and weaving alone would take a lot of time. Aside from this on the left is another seed pod taken from our national tree called Narra.
I love the design of their Nativity Scene which are also made from the seed pods. I am amazed of their creativity as I could not imagine how they thought about using this type of material.
Another naturally designed star also made from abundant materials in our area.
According to the description materials used are pandan leaves, abaka and interestingly the achuete. The achuete or annatto is a local spice used to naturally color our food. It has an orange red color with a a nutty and peppery scent.
The next star looks like it has used bamboo which are cut like leaves, put together and now looks like scales of a fish. Bamboo is a cheap, but strong building material in our country. It can still be seen in native houses and restaurants.
This one is made from plastic straws. It is a reminder that straws are now removed from a lot of fast food chains to reduce pollution. A great way to put them into good use is the creation of this star.
Another star made from plastic recycled material. Made from plastic spoons and discarded DVDs. People is our country loves watching movies especially at home. Movie piracy is still rampant in our country, most of the people here buys DVD and after watching it a couple of times it ends up in the trash. But technology is changing fast and the majority now just downloads or streams movies.
The next design is a bit hard to figure out the materials used. It looks like seed pods and dried leaves painted in silver. I could also see materials taken from a walis Tambo which is our local broom made from a type of grass.
Following is a star made from sugar cane and corn. It still looks fresh. I am surprised ants and insects hasn't got to it yet. Sugar cane is abundant is our country and has may uses. I recall when I was young I used to just sink my teeth into one of them and just suck out the sweetness. It is also used as a natural way to fight tooth decay.
We have a lot of coconut trees in our country and which is very useful. A refreshing drink from the coconut, building materials from the tree and leaves. This one I could call the coconut star.
Coconut husk fibers has been used to make the ring around the star. Materials also taken from another local broom called walis ting ting which is made from the hard center part of the coconut leaves. The wood shavings though I think may have come from a differ type of wood.
Although I think they could have done better on the Nativity Scene.
Now this is truly extra ordinary. I have never seen anything like this design. Made from a lot of quail and chicken eggs. I don't know how they came up with a lot of egg shells.
The quails egg is a very popular snack in our country. You could buy the from street vendors which sells them, deep fried in an orange batter which is called Kwek Kwek. Be wary though as quail eggs are very high in cholesterol, contails 158 calories and is advisable to just eat around three pieces. Now that gave me an idea that the shells were taken from a Kwek Kwek vendor which makes sense.
The chicken egg shells gave it a nice flair to it. A lot of egg shells to this piece and probably one of the students has parents who are into the egg business.
These shells I could imagine could be more than 1000 pieces and would have taken days to put together. I love the originality as I have never seen anything like it in the past years of the event.
These stars reminds us of the Holiday season and the year that is almost coming to an end. Pieces that represents parts of our culture and a bright future for our children. I hope you enjoyed the stars that I have shared with you today and let me know what are your favorites.
Thanks for joining me, Happy Holidays and enjoy the last few days of 2018. Hoping a bright future for all of us in the coming year.
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Thank you so much for sharing these!! They are beautiful, really, all of them. I love the use of waste material. It is a great way of reusing things and also a testimony to how much waste we are producing.
Some of the pods look like they could be from a tree that is growing in my yard :)
Would you consider allowing me the use of some of your photos for my Sustainable Living Podcast Blog? Or maybe you want to do a guest blog post? http://sustainablelivingpodcast.com/
It is also a great way of learning for the students. Being aware of recycling and turning thrown materials into something beautiful. Please feel free to use the photos for your Podcast Blog.
Thank you so much!! I will give you credit of course!
Interesting work from any artistic folks there.
Ah you should see the ones that has lights as they are amazing. I wasn't able to take some photos hopefully next December. Have a very prosperous New Year @ace108
Thank you. Happy New Year to you and your family.
Wow! I'm impressed at the creativity and effort the students put into these stars. Are they university students or lower grades?
Each one is so unique. I always enjoyed projects like this in school because it gave me a chance to be creative. :-D
These were made by High School students with the mix of all levels. I am sensing that you are very creative when creating art like this. School gives us a boost to explore creativity and nurture hidden talents. Happy New Year!
Happy New Year to you as well! :-D
That's so impressive that they were made by kids that young!
All this stars are amazingly made!!!i love how they are all so different, they are so creative.
Thanks for having a look and I am glad that you liked it. These kids are amazing as I wouldn't know where to start if I was gonna make one lol.
Gosh, they are all so unique and beautiful style of its own.
Thank you for sharing the stars with us!
The pleasure is all mine. Another year and will be looking forward to catch more stars this New Year. Happy New Year to you!
Thanks! 😊
I liked the egg shell one until I found out what it was made of hahaha
I don't like the smell of eggs
I still like it... good thing I can't smell it haha (I'm sure it didn't smell ;p)
Thank you for sharing this... it is a very cool idea :D
Good thing you mentioned it also came to my mind lol. I don't know how they did it but there was no eggy smell lol.
This is so beautiful. Actually most of them are beautiful. Recently I joined @quatro cabalen Christmas Countdown and to draw art using her prompt and one of it is the Pampanga lanterns. Then only I found out all the beautiful cultures and the star lanterns. Coz we don't have it like this in our country. Our lanterns are different.
Thank you for sharing. 😊
Each culture is uniquely beautiful and I hope you could share your lanterns with us this year. Have a blessed and beautiful New Year!
These are amazing stars. I have never seen anything like them. Thank you for sharing.
You are very welcome.
These are so amazing! So much creativity and talent must go into designing these!
Thank you my friend. I wanted to capture the lanterns at night as they are beautiful when all lit up. I guess it slipped my mind. I'm really amazed with the students who created these.
Your photos of them are pretty darn amazing, too. I would have loved seeing the lanterns. There is always next year!
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