Paper,paper,paper

Paper, paper, paper...........

I've just spent a fabulous week back in Seoul, South Korea.

Heading straight to Insadong I was able to gain renewed inspiration from all the wonderful shops selling Korean Hanji products and paper. I make contact with one of the shops, Ilsindang that has been sending me paper and kits here to the UAE and I met Mrs Lee the shop owner who was very helpful in explaining how to put some of the kits together. I spent hours just browsing the latest products available including, paper, kits, hardware, printed or hand painted panels, electrical fittings, glues and varnishes .

Looking online isn't quite the same as being able to browse through the sheets and feel the texture and weight of the papers as well as see their true colours.

A Hanbok made of paper

Andong Hanji

Mr Ee at Andong Hanji

Mr Ee and I in the paper showroom

Next we(Ron and I) headed out of Seoul on a 3 hour bus and a 40 minute taxi ride to meet Mr Ee at the Andong Hanji factory. He was pleased to see us after 8 years and even remembered us from our time working at Andong National University. The factory hasn't changed much since our last visit except for some wonderful paintings on the wall of the factory showing each stage of the paper making process. I believe that the Andong factory is the last of it's kind in Korea to still make the paper completely by hand. I'll explain more about it in another post.

The factory had an exhibition hall with items made by a wonderful lady who came out to see if she could help me. Unfortunately she didn't speak English and I don't speak enough Korean so with Mr Ee translating I found out that she'd just come back from giving an exhibition of her work in Brisbane, Australia.

It was a long day by the time we got to Seoul but it was oh so worth it.

Comments

Lotus symbol in Korean culture .....

In traditional Korean Hanji art you can see many different designs of plants, animals, letters and insects. I'm sure you've wondered what they all symbolise as they are repeated so often and in many different ways. In this post I just want to take a brief look at the lotus plant and what it symbolises for the Korean people. I've used this design on a few articles but I never really knew the full meaning of what it represented until I started doing some research for my book. Even though many of us aren't Korean we can still use these designs and in so doing, translate a deeper meaning to our articles. Here are a just a few of my favourites from the easiest to the more difficult to cut out. The lotus flower symbolises creation, birth, liveability and reproduction and therefore it's one of the most important symbols in both Korean culture and its traditional religions. In both Confucianism and Buddhism

The Buddhist symbol, Hanji & Korean culture ....

When selecting designs for my Hanji pieces I tend to make stylistic choices as to what will look best on each piece but the Korean designs all have very deep symbolic meanings. None more than the Buddhist swastika (manja) design. ‘Manja’ (만, Man is “卍” and 만자, Manja literally means “letter Man”) is also called Srivatsalksana in Sanskrit. It is one of the thirty-two (32) marks of excellence of the Buddha and is said to exist on his hands, feet, hair and waist. For those of us in the West this is often confused with the German Nazi swastika symbol but in fact it's been around for about three thousand years. The swastika is an equilateral cross with arms bent at right angles and all in the same direction, usually to the right, or clockwise. It's a symbol of prosperity and good fortune and it originally represented the revolving sun, fire, or life. The word swastika is derived from the Sanskrit swastika which means, "conducive to well

Online Hanji paper store, in English .....

I'm really pleased to be able to share with you this website where you can order a variety of Hanji papers from Korea and it's all in English !!! The store is based in Daejon, Korea. HAMINBRIDGE ( Thehanji ) was established by Moonyang Park in 1983. It's a family owned 2nd generation business and they have a factory in Junju. They also have a factory in China where some of the paper is made. The website is at www. thehanji.com and it provides a selection of specialty Hanji paper (Korean paper) and products. I ordered some papers from them recently to see what it was like and they were extremely efficient in dealing with the order and it was here in the UAE within 5 days so I was really impressed. The prices were good and they even have some on special, the paper is beautiful and the ease of ordering was amazing. They do sell rolls of paper, traditional papers and lanterns but overall I did think the range was a bit limited for what I wa

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