Sugar art, an ancient Chinese cultural tradition, drew a lot of interest at the Raglan Creative Market on Sunday 12th. Katy Gander has been performing her sugar painting around the Waikato events over recent months.
This distinctive folk craft originated in the Ming Dynasty, dating back to have over 500 years of history. Almost lost it is now unergoing a revival. Sugar painting, uses heated sugar and can be eaten.
Katy does her sugar art on a polished slab of marble on a small table. Each design is a unique work of art made entirely from sugar. It is very different from conventional painting. If liquid sugar cools too quickly it can become frozen solid, so the painter to her work very quickly. The painter can use either brown sugar or white sugar as the raw material. The tools are a copper spoon and shovel and the “paper” is the marble slab. Liquid sugar, is made from boiling solid sugar in a pot. Then the liquid sugar spoon is used on the “paper” to draw a thin line. Traditional Chinese designs can be created along with animals and other designs.