Chinese New Year of the 'Tyger'

Wishing all of you a very Happy Year of the Tiger and Valentine’s day! Hopefully my tigers will roar this year.

Part of the inspiration for these silk paper cut ‘tygers’ is William Blake’s poem

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

My tygers are half hidden in the forest. The gold one is to remind us that this is the year of the metal tiger – this element gives the tiger its sharpness in action and speed of thought. Tigers born in the Metal year like to stand out in a crowd with an inspiring assertiveness and competitive demeanor.

The red Tyger silk paper cutting is made of several tygers stitched together. Each is slightly different so other shapes and lines can be seen. Seen here it hangs in an open space allowing the viewer to look at it from both sides.

Peering through the fretwork foliage allows the viewer to spy on what’s happening on the other side.

The Year of the Ox

Belated Happy New Year of the Ox! This is the most important festival of the year here in Taipei. The city becomes deserted with everyone returning to their ancestral homes. This gives us lots of time to wander and enjoy the empty streets. Here is my son, Adam, standing in front of Taipei city hall admiring the enormous paper cuttings without getting run over!


On New Year's Eve after the traditional evening meal with the in laws we returned home for midnight when all the windows were opened at 12am to let the New Year in and to say 'Hi' to the various Gods. That's also the time when the people set off the traditional firecrackers, leaving a lovely pungent smell of gunpowder in the air.


Last year was the year of the Rat. 'Coincidentally' we caught a rat in our house on the first day of the year of the rat!! We live on the 12F of a modern apartment building which is a heck of a climb for a little rodent. Anyway, I proudly boasted of my capture until someone told me that if the rat was killed (which it was) our fortune would leave the house. The credit crunch certainly saw to that!! Hopefully the year of the Ox (which is my sign) will bring us better luck. So far I haven't seen any sign of ox droppings in the kitchen....Yet!