95s Wuxi students win first prize in maker contest

The patterns printed on scarves designed by the Hou Hewei team. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Patterns are key to both series. The patterns printed on the scarves mainly come from jade phoenix, the treasure of Hongshan Museum, together with other jades and potteries in the museum. The students extracted patterns from these collections and painted them with fashionable colors. They then applied the colorful and unique patterns to create distinctive scarves.

Since the Hongshan Museum is known for Wu culture, based on the culture of the Wu kingdom (222-280), and phoenix and sunflowers are its representative images, the students selected them as their creative sources for their second set of products. By exaggerating the two images, they sketched out a series of jade phoenix and sunflower patterns. These can be printed on practical products including pens, writing paper, cups and cushions; they may become another kind of publicity for the museum.

The students explained that tourists can buy the practical products decorated with the museum's features, take them home, and use them in their daily lives.