Rosie has created a new colouring sheet for Colour Our Collections this season, chosen to celebrate the start of the Lunar Year of the Snake, which this year falls on January 29th 2025.

Walter Crane (1845-1915), Tracing of small design for embossing to front cover of ‘The Book of Orm’, c.1870. Accession number: WCA.1.1.2.1.225

This piece is a tracing of a small design by Walter Crane, which was intended to be an embossing on the front cover of a book called ‘The Book of Orm’. The book itself was written by an author called Robert Williams Buchanan, and was first published in 1870. It explored ‘mysticism’, a spiritual belief or practice that focuses on the transformative power of becoming one with a higher power, or with the universe itself. 

In this tracing we see a snake coiled around the branches of a tree, which is set under a sky of stars. As we enter 2025, the lunar new year begins and brings us into the year of the snake. In the lunar calendar, the snake is said to represent great wisdom and intuition. 

Red and gold are popular colours for these new year celebrations, as they are said to bring good luck. Perhaps you can incorporate these lucky colours into your drawing when you work on this colouring sheet to bring you luck for 2025! 

-Rosie