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 There is an old Chinese proverb that says

” May you live in interesting times”

and we do. Many of you are feeling the effects of the shifts in heaven and earth.

Here is how Iam celebrating  the shift here are some things you can do on Wednesday.

1.Make some Holy Solar Water and spray your yourself and your space.

( Place water in a glass container in the sun for 8 minutes. You can add prayers and intentions. You can also use rose water, or orange blossom water from the Middle Eastern Market)

2. Write you intentions on Joss Paper then burn and bless them. ( Get Paper at the Asian Market)

3. Meditate and empty your mind, so it can receive messages from the universe.

4. Emjoy a day without meat. This gives your digestion a rest, and it will make you feel lighter and open to the energy of the day. This is also another way to honor animals.

5. At Sundown you can light 8 white tea lights, and enjoy the energy of 12/12/2012

6. Do all of the above! ( Which I will be doing along with some Champagne  )

Namaste,

Janet

When I visited for the second time the apartment building in which I would eventually rent an apartment, I found that the brand-new entrance hall of this apartment building was thoroughly rebuilt. Before the rebuilding was completed, I found the origin of this: the instructions of a feng shui consultant. Most of the apartments in the new building were empty, so a feng shui consultant was engaged and in his wisdom he came to the conclusion that the entrance hall had to be rebuild according to his detailed instructions. The bad balance of the energies — whatever that means — in the entrance hall was considered the cause of the empty apartments. In reality, the excess of apartments in Macau was the cause of the empty apartments. Soon the economic situation changed in such a way that renting a relatively luxurious apartment became affordable for more average Macanese people. As a result of that the number of empty apartments decreased, but the decrease was of course attributed to the better balance of the energies.

Shortly after I moved into my apartment in Macau. I found that the connection of a tap to the water pipe was leaking. The plumber that was sent by the landlady to repair the connection was badly trained to be a plumber. Like many Macaneses working in the building industry, he used modern tools and materials wrong. Thus, he tried to wind synthetic tape around the thread at the back of the tap as in older days with hemp. However, the synthetic tape has to be wound with great care and according to certain rules in order to stem the water. In other words, each try of this plumber was fated to end in a leaking connection. The plumber, who arrived early in the evening, did not want to lose face and kept giving it a try till shortly before midnight. When he left, the plumber said that he would try again the next day. However, the next day I borrowed some tools at work, bought a small spool of the required tape, and repaired the connection myself.

Early in March, when my wife visited me in Macau, we went to a travel agency to book a package holiday in China during the summer season for the whole family. We were very politely told that we were to early. It was said that we could not yet book a package holidays in China during the summer season, but that we could book it early in May. If we would return at that time, we could certainly book the package holiday that we wanted. Thus, I returned to the travel agency in the middle of May. I was thrown into confusion: I could not book a package holidays in China during the summer season because they did not offer package holidays in China at all. The people at the travel agency denied that they had ever said something to the contrary and looked at me as if I was a fool. I left the travel agency lost in amazement. Eventually, I organized the holiday myself with the help of colleagues.

At first, I did not have a clue about this event. Later, I told Wendy Hoi, who was the most westernized among the members of the support staff with Chinese roots, about it and she explained me that this was a matter of saving face: the people at the travel agency told a lie during my first visit in order not to lose face. If I would have had Chinese roots myself, I would have understood that I was not expected to return for package holidays in China.

During my first days in Macau, I was among other things looking for an apartment. After the visit to one of the apartments that I did not rent, it was already dark, I was witness of a strange sight with a gruesome touch. An older woman, who looked in my opinion like an old hag, was burning pieces of paper that were reminiscent of bank notes in something that looked like an iron wastebasket. She did so by the curb in an obscure alley alongside the apartment building that I had just visited. Vivian, the girlfriend of Xu QiWen accompanying me, told me that the woman was thus sending “hell money” to the spirits of her ancestors in order to make their afterlife comfortable. Vivian, who has Chinese roots herself, told me also that this burning of hell money was still a custom among Macanese people coming from rural areas in South China.

My closest neighbors in the apartment building where I lived often burned incense on a kind of altar in the corridor between the front doors of our apartments. Later, I already lived in my apartment for several months, shortly before I would go to bed I first thought that my neighbors were burning a lot of incense at the same time. However, it became worse. Eventually, smoke was coming into my room through the slit under my front door. I opened the front door and saw that the corridor was full of smoke between my apartment and at least the lift. I was scared because it looked as if the building was on fire and that it would be very difficult to leave the building. I walked in the direction of the lift and found an old hag looking at something that looked like a glowing iron wastebasket from which a lot of smoke of burning hell money came.

It took many hours before the smoke and the smell of burning hell money had disappeared from the corridor. I called the Macanese police about this incident because I thought something so unsafe was forbidden, but they made it clear that they would do nothing about it. It turned out that people with Chinese roots in Macau often burn hell money in their apartments in high-rise buildings. In the case at hand, it got a little bit out of hand. The old woman became too enthusiastic and burned too much hell money at the same time. The result was fortunately only inconvenience.

Anyhow, the mode of thought of the Macanese people with Chinese roots is quite different from the mode of thought of Western people. When I go to a market in the Netherlands just before closing time, I generally get fruits and vegetables that are probably unsaleable the next day cheaper than earlier on the day because the market vendor want to get rid of them. However, in Macau, these fruits and vegetables become more expensive near closing time. I was told that the reason for this is that the shopper is in the fortunate position that the fruits or vegetables concerned are still available near closing time. I could communicate with people with Chinese roots about basal matters by means of gestures and facial expression alone. Therefore, I got the impression that the mutual incomprehension that I experienced in other matters originated from our different modes of thought and not from language problems. Later I have met several Chinese people who had succeeded to pick up the mode of thought of Western people during a long stay in Western countries — and I experienced no mutual incomprehension with them. I have not succeeded in picking up the mode of thought of people with Chinese roots during my stay of two years in Macau.

© Kees Middelburg, 2012. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Kees Middelburg with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Chi (or qi) is a person’s life force or life energy.  Maybe think of it as spirit, although the Taiwanese believe it is much more corporeal.  My girlfriend (who is the daughter of a practising Taiwanese fortune teller / priest) told me that I have bad chi.  She says that her body is very sensitive to a person’s chi, and mine’s reeking of mouldy socks.

For clarification, this doesn’t mean that I am a bastard with evil energy and intent.  It means that my normally awesome chi has been infected by bad chi from ghosts outside.  There are many ways this could happen and I must go to a temple to get rid of it.

My foreign mind wants to dismiss this out of hand.  Ghosts and spirits are not included in my normal definition of what is real.  But in the interest of keeping an open mind, and maybe learning something about Taiwanese day to day worship, I agreed.  Not to mention, rejecting her life-long beliefs (even if they are really strange to me) would have been a real jerk-off thing to do.

So we went to a temple (I neglected to take a picture, so here is a pic of another temple for illustration.  They all look the same to me anyway):

You have to go in through the left (dragon), and exit through the right (tiger).  I’m not sure what this does, but it has something to to with maintaining a good feng shui.  We bought some incense sticks and she took me through the temple showing me what to do.

First off, we lit the sticks and headed to this:

There are other structures like this in the temple, but this one is the biggest.  I was instructed to hold the incense sticks at chest level and say a prayer or give thanks.  Apparently this is the station of one of the gods.

I discovered that while this temple belongs to a particular deity, there are stations within the temple that are domains of other gods as well.  Sort of like embassies within a country.

After saying what I had to say, I bow a few times and put one of my incense sticks into the vessel (you can see the other ones in the pic).  Then off to god number 2.  This continued through 7 stations.  The point of this was supplication and request for something (in my case, getting rid of bad chi).

After that, we went to the area of the main deity and I was introduced to ”divination blocks” and “fortune sticks”:

Divination blocks
Courtesy of http://www.tranews.com/Show/Style200/Column/c1_Column.asp?SItemId=0131030&ProgramNo=A000203000004&SubjectNo=7880

Kau Cim (fortune sticks)
Courtesy of http://www.redphoenixemporium.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&product_id=379&flypage=flypage.tpl&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=57&vmcchk=1&Itemid=57

The rules are different at every temple.  In this one:

1. Ask a question.  You have to be serious about this or you are just wasting your time and the god’s time (you don’t want to do this….this is bad – think divine retribution).  It’s one of those “you-have-to-believe” type deals.
2. Pick a fortune stick out of a container filled with many fortune sticks.
3. Toss the divination blocks.  You are looking for one face up and the other face down. This has to happen 3 times in a row.  Once it happens, the fortune on that stick is your answer.  Otherwise pick another stick and repeat.

I went through the process a few times but never got 3 in a row.  So then, I was told to ask if the god even wanted to answer my question.  If the blocks both fell face down, then the god was busy and he had no time for my pithy requests.  I threw the blocks a final time.

Lo and behold, they fell face down.  The god didn’t have time for my “waiguo ren” (foreigner) questions.

Since I had been spurned I was, naturally, put out.  Plus all the smoke from the incense was starting to burn my eyes.  I was ready to get going, when my girlfriend reminded me that we have to give an offering to the gods to gain their favour (and lose my bad chi).  Fine.

We bought some of this:

It’s called “Joss paper”.  Also known as “ghost money”.  This ritual is typically carried out at the end of every worship session.  The packaging is removed and the ”money” is tossed into a fire, turning it into a burnt offering.  The furnace (which is located outside the temple) looks like this:

And a closer look at the fire:

I gotta admit, it was fun throwing the paper in and watching it burn up.

That was my temple trip.  While I didn’t feel any prodigious amounts of evil ghost essence leaving me, I did learn a bit more about the life of my average Taiwanese neighbour.  And if I my chi has been cleaned up in the process, score.  I win!

This is a rather serious and pointy looking thing Zac and I made earlier in the week on a whim. It’s from the gold-leaf middle section of a large piece of Chinese funeral paper (joss paper). Don’t ask me why it took two of us— it was just a sport of spontaneous creation moment; he holding the artfully crumpled paper and I darting in with the scissors to make petal shapes. Now it’s up on a wall in an empty gold frame.

(Top photo: nighttime, incandescent; Bottom photo: daytime, sunlight, Hipstamatic™)

Note for the reader. This comic book was originally written in Chinese before being translated into English. Chinese comic books read from right to left. Each page should be read from right to left starting from the top right drawing.

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SP Lim

When the time rolled around to put the tins to use, I found some plain white shades to go on top. But they seemed not quite adequate. Then I remembered the joss paper I’d acquired on another trip to 99 Ranch…and the die was cast.

Luck & Crackers lamps

I’ve been told that the bases and shades seem to be speaking different languages. I can see – or rather hear – that. But given that the bases by themselves speak three or four…well, I don’t see the problem.

Nonetheless, I’m selling all the pieces separately. Visit my Etsy shop for details about the lamp bases and shades. For more pictures, see the Desk & Table lamps page.

My real camera is dead, so all of the photos for the last couple of months have been courtesy of my iPhone (not the best quality).  I was also helping with many of the activities, so I missed some photo ops.  Still, you can see the cool dragon decoration, the lanterns in the trees, and the kids remembering their ancestors and offering their burnt offerings/prayer candles.  It was SO much fun.  I can’t wait until next year!

This is the fifth post about a recent business trip I took to Hebei province

While driving through Tangshan on the first night of our government-sponsored tour of northeast Hebei, I noticed a small group of people huddled around a small bonfire. They were tossing pieces of paper into the flame to keep it going. As we drove through the city, I saw more fires.

My interpreter said they were making offerings to their ancestors. The pieces of paper, called joss paper or hell money, are monetary offerings so the people’s ancestors have cash in the afterlife.

When we got to Qinhuangdao, I snuck out of the hotel late at night to find a few of these people. On one of the street corners, about 20 people were busy burning the papers. I tried to be as discrete as possible, but there’s only so much blending in a white guy with a big camera can do on a small street in a city that doesn’t get many foreign visitors.

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The idea of a contrast between transparency and opacity made me think of ice and snow, which is sometimes transparent and sometimes opaque. So I photocopied some images of ice and snow crystals and spent a happy afternoon creating paper snowflakes (I felt as if I was six years old again!). Most of the snowflakes I tore rather than cut, because I wanted the outlines to be slightly fuzzy rather than sharp.

However, I was a bit disappointed with the result (below).

First, I think the snowflake templates moved slightly when I put the screen down – maybe this is one of the occupational hazards of printing with an open screen. Also, I tried to graduate the colour of the background from light to dark, but I think it would look better if the background was a consistent hue. Finally, the snowflakes that were cut rather than torn look better, because the process of removing excess paper leaves a slightly fuzzy edge anyway.

So I did another one with a background of more uniform hue, which I think looks better. There are fewer snowflakes because I ran out (of templates and time!) – but I can see the direction I want to develop this, maybe with some overprinting with opaque white ink and touches of silver foiling.

Bonded paper and fabric before removing paper

After removing paper

Just time, then, for another experiment with some joss paper, or ghost money, that I bought from a Chinese supermarket.

The paper is very thin, so I hoped it would disintegrate in the same way as newspaper. I also wanted to see what happened to the metallic gold squares during the process.

The result wasn’t quite what I expected. I laid out the paper face up, with the gold touching the fabric, but once the paper is bonded, it’s quite difficult to see the gold through the fabric (it’s more obvious close up if you shine a direct light on it). However, the metallic shine is much more obvious on the reverse.

Below, you can see the front and back of a small experimental sample as well as a larger piece using the joss paper.

Joss paper sample - front

Joss paper sample - back

Joss paper hanging

Close-up of front

Close-up of back

Hopefully I won’t now be struck down by malevolent Chinese spirits who feel insulted by my using the paper in this way!

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SP Lim

Tomb-sweeping day, or the Qingming festival, falls every year as it has now for thousands of years, just after the Spring equinox (April 5 this year).  It’s a day for the living to reunite with family members, to pay their respects to the dead, and to enjoy the warming spring air.  But you too are looking forward to it, because you need stuff, just as generations of ancestors before you have.  You’re keeping your fingers crossed that your descendants will have given careful thought to what provisions will get you through another year.

Of course they will bring oranges, cigarettes, watermelon seeds, shoes, and maotai liquor, because they’ve done that routinely for the past ten years or so, knowing full well how much you enjoyed those things in life.  You’re less confident that this year they’ll bring the cash you need to cover normal expenses, mahjong bets, and occasional bribe to gain preferential treatment in the spirit world.  They’re naturally aware that you, like ancestors in all the neighboring graves, are expecting money (a mainstay of the holiday for centuries), but this year the living have expressed a new concern about the economic and environmental effects of provisioning ancestors with money (see Xinhua).

It turns out that in 2010 people spent 1.5 billion dollars on money and other gifts for ancestors.  That’s paper money, of no use in the living world.  The money, joss paper as it is called, is burnt at gravesites, its essence then transmitted to ancestors for use in the spirit world.

The 1.5 billion dollar cost alone wouldn’t stand in the way of Chinese descendants caring for ancestors.  But people are now calculating the toll on the environment as well. There’s the deforestation that results from the manufacture of the money: more than 1000 tons of papers bills were burnt on last year’s tomb-sweeping day.  The environmental costs continue: 1000 tons of burning paper spews a lot of particulate matter and ash into the air.  Living people have become worried about the pollution and the health effects on the descendants of burning money.  One of them told Xinhua News: “At this time of year, people burning thick wads of yellow-colored paper cash can be seen on the streets. The ashes make the streets dirty and the air sometimes would become suffocating.”

And then there’s the concern with fires.   Last year, burning paper money and other paper goods set off 1651 fires, leaving 17 people dead.  This year, the Ministry of Security has urged fire control bureaus to be more vigilant and “to identify fire risks and prevent major fires during the festival.”  Police departments are expected to increase patrols at sites where fires are most likely to be lit (see People’s Daily). You’re hoping that your cemetery isn’t one of high interest to the local police department.

It’s not just the paper money that’s on your wish list.  There’s the Mercedes Benz that you had always coveted in the world of the living.  Your eldest son was aware of just how much you wanted to own a luxury car.  You’re hoping, almost beyond hope, that he remembers your disappointment and buys a paper Mercedes to transmit for use in your spirit world.  Some of the Mercedes even come with their own drivers!

And it would be wonderful, of course, to get an iPad 2.

But this expectation is pretty unrealistic—you know there’s been a run on them, and paper shops throughout the country simply can’t keep them on their shelves (see Reuters; PC Mag.com).

And there’s always the danger you won’t get anything but the routine oranges and a bit of maotai.  You’ve heard of families that have gone totally low carbon and environmentally friendly on tomb-sweeping day.  Mr. Zhang, who above complained about the suffocating air of burnt paper money, stopped the practice of burning gifts to his ancestors altogether.  He remarked, “In the past we would burn fake paper money for our ancestors on this special occasion. But presenting flowers or silk ones began gaining popularity in Hohhot last year and we have decided to shift to the new way of doing things…It is more environment-friendly.”

I did my third-grade grade book report on the I Ching. There I was tossing yarrow sticks for the children to access the esoteric but eminently practical ancient oracle from China, based on the same binary code pattern that computers run on. The I Ching is the Matrix of alignment with the seasons, the stars and human emotions. My third grade teacher was astonished by the answer to her question about the classroom windowsill garden’s health. (Thems were simpler days, God only knows where I found yarrow sticks)

In the recent midst of drama beyond the scope of a healthy kitchen garden, I pulled number 11, which translates to Peace. And in true I Ching style, of course, this hexagram relates to the beginning of March and the coming of Spring. The small departs and the Large arises. Synthesising personal experience and emotions for me has always been in tune with the rythyms of nature as a mirror and a conversation. I drop my small experience at the feet of not necessarily what is hot on Twitter but what all of the smarts of chlorophyll, micro and macro quasar-kinda organisms have on their agenda at the moment.

The best part is that it usually is in sync with the world stage.

Currently, running beside the I Ching is movements in Astrology’s 12th house pushing against ideas and emotions of dreams/imagination/past karmic debt and emotional baggage or in other words: our own heroic task of freeing ourselves from unconscious inherited crippling fears and redeeming the family dramas stored up in the cold of winter into new creativity and giving. The small departs, for the new life of Spring. Sinking the small into the earth for transformation and nurturing what may be new growth, new opportunity.

Here are six new Winter into Spring stirrings and secret pleasures arising from my recent travels and adventures.

ONE: THE WORN GROOVES GIVE WAY, LIFE FLOWS ON

The Spring returns and the flow rushes over the crevices, filling them, and moving on, moving all of life forward. Holding a reminder of the past to strengthen for the Future. The giving up in order to give more, love more. These environmental works are by Andy Goldsworthy and the ring is by Linhardt Design Studio, in the East Village, where custom designs from Lisa Linhardt pop up in the pages of mags like Numero and Harpers Bazaar and on the ring fingers of the most inventive brides.

I Ching hexagram image of T’ai or Peace. The Big Male Sun Gold Daytime Light Solid Yang lines or lifespring pushes upwards through the Yin, The Small Female Silver Moon Night time Receptive or Open lines. My secret site for absorbing the I Ching is here.

Chinese Joss paper, is “spirit money” burned for the veneration of ancestors to insure good things in the afterlife. I was connected to Joss paper in a new way this year as the Winter atmosphere seemed to highlight the warmth of gold and the Yang sun energy through interiors, food and wine and the silver or Yin, moon energy in the blue light of snowy New York streets at night.

Another ring thing to celebrate spring and the balance of nature is chameleon jewelry designer and Opera singer Valerie MacCarthy‘s jewels. Binary living in Paris and New York breeds a fresh idea in her elements collections just bought by Colette. Her videos are by our friend Andreas von Scheele and we are excited to represent this collection in the US. Valerie’s water pieces evoke the circular joy of water bubbling up, the solid in the movement.

TWO: THE LAST OF THE WINTER ENDLESS SNACKING: MORNING, NOON AND NIGHT.

Quick Bites at NEW YORK CITY’S GANSEVOORT, EATALY, MONDRIAN, SNACK DRAGON.

Bluebird feather lamps teasing in freezing drafts from the main door in the lobby of the new Mondrian Soho on the preview evening, were the only whisper of Spring when the hotel is set to officially open. Soon all this dashing through frigid to grab drinks, snacks, warmth, nuts and news is sure to pass. The last of the winter snacking to mitigate the cold is meeeellllting!

10 am. Early March is The Armory Show of contemporary art in New York. A pre-Armory show breakfast at The Gansevoort with Cricket Taplin, curator of The Cricket Taplin Collection at The Sagamore Hotel in Miami Beach, artists Samara Ash and Paul Clemence was a love fest conversation on sweat lodges, new artists, the delicate and hearty perfect frittatas and the best hotel amenity gifts everyone has seen around the world. (My vote actually goes for Cricket’s passionate and visionary collection shared with her guests as one of the most priceless guest gifts I’ve seen in a hotel.)

 

A skype with my bi-local NYC/London friend, Shelley Lewis revealed one of her random-share-a-cab-and-become-instant-friends moments was when she met Buddhist Dharma teacher and author, Catherine Ingram, who wrote “The Crack in Everything” and “Passionate Prescence.” Catherine teaches acceptance of exactly that which breaks our hearts and puts a crack in our precious myths supporting outmoded concepts as the basis for a more compassionate melted and friendly heart.

“In the depths of Winter, I finally learned that within me lay an invincible summer.” Albert Camus 

“After finishing my tour, I was edging out on being very burned out, jaded, bored and cynical. The quote by Camus is about…finding that burning sun inside me again. Right on the edge of being completely awful and negative, I cracked. And I found my love for my music, I found my joie de vivre. I found my core personality which is incredibly positive and happy-go-lucky.” K.D. Lang

Life rolls on. We go, happy and lucky into Spring. Do you like my “I took it with my cell phone” photo so it looks like a cool Alien ship landing in the snowy Winter dawn? Soul in Your Spacesuit indeed.

Motto: Amuse Thyself.

of course, The Orb’s A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Center of The Ultraworld just came on the shuffle…so enjoy!

The dragons made by sand.

The ‘wealth’ surrounded the dragons

Giant dragon joss stick.

Some ‘actions’ is going on

Another end sexy singer is performing.

Worshiper looking for ‘gold’ after the prayers.

The papier-mache

Fire stunt series

A few months ago a friend, knowing what a paper addict I am, gave me a thick little packet of beautiful papers she bought on a trip. The paper may be made of bamboo. A pale, creamy yellow stamped with bright color–some of them stamped with a square of smooth silver foil, others with orange ink and gold foil that’s been embossed with rectangular shapes.

Of course, some of you are saying, “Oh, I already know what that is–it’s joss paper.”

And indeed it is. Joss paper, also known as spirit money, shade money, ghost money, dark paper, is burnt as part of funeral observances in China and some other Asian countries.  As such, it’s treated with some reverence, and many customs have grown up around when it’s okay to use it and when it’s not. It’s traditionally burned following a death to make sure that the deceased will have good things in the afterlife–kind of like opening a debit account for them in the next world. In facdt, according to Wikipedia, in some places the dead are gifted with hell bank notes (imagine Monopoly money decorated with gods, mythical beings, and emperors)  and even paper replicas of credit cards.

This is all okay.

What’s not okay, apparently, is giving such currency to living people, joking about it, or leaving it laying about your house where people could see and be offended by it.

I have a project in mind that would make use of this paper, what I believe is a respectful use. But I don’t want to offend anyone through my ignorance.  I’ve asked around, I’ve looked at places on line where various uses of this paper is discussed, and I’ve brought it up with friends of Asian ancestry. A few say, “Oh,you don’t want to do that,” but most say, “As long as you aren’t being openly offensive, it’s not really a problem.”

So, what say you? Any thoughts on this? Please don’t throw rocks at me–I mean well.

To get you started, here’s a bit of working with this paper I’ve done so far:

I’d love more information–can you help?

By tradition joss papers are folded & burned in ceremonies that honor deities & ancestors. Ostensibly, they are offered to ensure that ancestors have enough worldy goods to sustain them in the afterlife. Some Buddhists do not use them thinking that it is incorrect to want ones ancestors to be sutained by material goods – and I can’t really disagree with that belief. I do know, however, that joss papers are beautiful. Generally made from bamboo paper they are often gilt with gold or silver, or, as I now know, with wonderful inscriptions and designs. Joss papers are, I think, a gold mine for artists. When I use one I generally offer up a prayer for one person or thing or another. That seems a good way to make use of this amazing,beautiful paper. I can’t imagine a better selection of them being available anywhere else. SkyBluePink has an amazing selection of other wonderful treasures and they offer reasonable shipping costs as well. Check out what they offer ! No affilliation etc etc – just a surprised, plesed new customer!

Above you can see a packet of mahjong cards and small chinese coins, along with a packet of chinese money envelopes – decorated in rich reds and gold.

Packets of different varieties of joss papers and other oriental papers

They also carry things like these tiny paint dabbers -
which I have found to be super helpful when doing small detail work.

I thought it was a nice visual arts installation. But the origami was made with josspaper…

Pictures shot with a Motorola ROKR E1. This is NOT an endorsement. The camera function is, well, crap, as you can see.