It’s almost time for Qing Ming (清明), a holiday dedicated to honoring our ancestors, cleaning their grave sites, and making ritual offerings. Both the white chrysanthemum, a flower of mourning, and the willow branch, a symbol of new life that wards off troubled spirits, are common Qing Ming offerings.

During this special MOCACREATE workshop, we’ll be celebrating Qing Ming by creating ink drawings of symbolic chrysanthemums on rice and yupo paper. We’ll experiment with ink and water to see how they react on different types of paper.

We’ll also be writing letters to our ancestors on green paper, which we’ll use to decorate a collaborative willow tree made to honor our loved ones who are no longer with us.