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Hanji lessons learnt .........

Our Hanji happenings tour to Korea was a resounding success.   
Three of us set off from the UAE with a single focus of sourcing out hanji papers and a wish to improve our hanji making skills through instruction and discussions with other hanji artists. 

What I personally discovered was how far hanji has come from the old traditional methods of cutting and pasting to the modern laser  cutting and mass production of hanji objects. 

Laser cutouts
The jewelry box  I made in 3 hours
I emailed ahead and organised a 3 hour lesson with Gui-Sook Yang at the Andong Paper factory and we learnt how quick and easy it is to produce an item by using  paper print outs then placing laser cutouts on top.

I'm well aware of the long and painstacking traditional methods of producing a hanji item but I now realise how automated this craft has become to cater for the growing demand, mainly by tourists, for these craft items.


Paper heaven
The Andong Factory has a huge selection of papers and we all enjoyed choosing papers to bring back to the UAE for our new projects. It was such a treat to be able to walk into this shop and choose the papers off the shelf rather than order them on line.

Gui-Sook Yang and her daughter Sue
I'll write more about the things we found out about our craft in the following postings.......

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