Father and son tandem Mark Niño Tizon Flores and Arnel Flores, devoted their time and God-given craft in lantern-making as they produce another sparkling innovation —the Fabric 𝑃𝑎𝑟𝑢𝑙.
Aside from the traditional capiz and polyethylene plastic lanterns, the Flores lantern makers from Sta. Lucia are now selling fabric lanterns embellished with sequins and vivid cloth.
Initially, they constructed cartoon and movie character lanterns back in 2019 before they perfected forming the local star-shaped design.
“Kahit naka-off yung lantern, may buhay pa rin at talagang kumikinang yung parol dahil sa sequined fabric at buhay yung kulay ng lantern”, Mark shared as he noted that it took 10 years to create the lanterns with the new materials.
“Every year, we look forward to innovations on our lanterns while maintaining our traditions. This is a fusion: old meets new, because they used cloth and technologies to make the lanterns waterproof. We can see the traditional designs but the material is much more colorful,” said City of San Fernando tourism officer Ching Pangilinan.
Flores said that these new versions of 𝑃𝑎𝑟𝑢𝑙 𝐹𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑜 are more resilient and sturdier than the usual materials used to form the icon star lanterns of Pampanga.