Monday, February 1, 2010

Narcissus Blossom

Chinese new year is officially next week Sunday (on Valentine's day) so it is time again for narcissus to bloom. It has become a tradition for me to carve a narcissus bulb. It is very auspicious if it blossoms during new year. I carved them around 28 or so days before new year so this year, it was around the begining of January and it has started to bloom. The blossom should last a week so hopefully, I'll still have blossoms during the Chinese New Year. Crab claw style of carving should be that the leaves are curled and kept low. Mine, however are not curled enough so it's a bit high and straight. Atleast, this year, I did not ruin as many blossoms w/ my carving as I did in previous year. When they bloom, there is a very strong fragrant smell.
My father likes the easier carving of the 'upright' style.. it looks kinda like scallions.

5 comments:

Erick said...

Looks like you are getting better at this. Very nice photos!

jalna said...

Nice photos!! I don't understand carving. What do you carve?

SW said...

When you buy a narcissus blub, it's like an onion. Then you make cuts in the blub and remove some layers and cut the leaves to make them curl. Here's an article in the Star Bulletin from years ago that talks about the narcissus carving that has nice photos too..http://archives.starbulletin.com/2003/01/30/features/story1.html

celia said...

I really like a soft background shots. Your first shot has such a 3D effect - the narcissus really pops out!

jalna said...

Wow! So interesting. Thanks!