Congratulations to Sienna C (Year 6), who has been chosen as the Junior School Winner of the Maidstone Museum Heritage Design Challenge. Sienna’s beautiful and carefully constructed Japanese lantern is an extremely worthy winner and now she has to make ten more to be sold in the Museum’s gift shop in July.

Sienna worked with tenacity and independence to design her Japanese lantern. Inspired by the Japanese artefacts at the museum, and the care taken to make and decorate them, she decided to design a product that could be used in the home and combined both practicality and beauty.

Sienna describes the lantern as emitting a lovely, warm light, while creating a comfortable, relaxed atmosphere. It is made from sustainable materials, bamboo and washi paper that has been hand-painted with a blossom tree. It will be sold at the Maidstone Museum gift shop flat packed, so that the buyer can assemble it themselves. A superb product with innovative and brilliant design. Well done, Sienna!