Made by Sai Vang
September 7, 2023, was a day that my family lost a father, grandpa, and great-great-grandpa. In our tradition, we would make items out of cardboard covered in joss money. Covering the items in joss money is afterlife money and a way to send them to your loved ones so they would have it in the afterlife.
I decided to tackle making a pegasus for my grandpa as it symbolizes the animal that will take them into the afterlife. I began my research in Google and found some interesting ideas but was still stumped as to how to even start. Until I ran into a video on TikTok video made by Sherri, where she was making a pegasus as well for her children’s school event.
I decided to reach out to Sherri and she was able to point me in the direction of Jonni. From there I purchased the template for the horse head and was able to use that as a starting point.
The most difficult task was using corrugated cardboard for everything but in the end, I was able to get the head made. From there I made the body and figured out a way to make it stand by itself and be stable enough to last through our funeral service for my grandpa. In the end I was able to finish and everyone from friends and family loved the pegasus.
With all this hard work we had to burn the pegasus so my grandpa would be able to receive it and have it by his side. This pegasus will be a real-life pegasus in the afterlife with him and he will be able to use it for his bidding.
Below are the pictures of when I started the horse head template and sculpting the body to when I finished. The first picture of the pegasus shows all the items that were made for our loving grandpa, father, and great-great-grandpa.
Amazing! What a beautiful sculpture, and a wonderful tradition! Thanks you so much for sharing your photos, and telling us about the way it was used! 🙂
Thank you Jonni for the template! If it wasn’t for that, I do not think it would of ever got completed. It is just not my sculpture as it is part of yours as well in this Pegasus. Without your template and guidance, I would of never finish on time. Again I want to Thank You! From the bottom of my heart.
I’m very glad I could help with such a great project! 🙂