Skip to main content

Cheong-Ah Hwang - Paper sculptures ....

'Hanji' is the Korean word for paper and Hanji artists work with this amazingly versatile material in many different ways.  


The delicate attributes of Hanji paper lends itself to being used in 2 dimensional paintings, using paper instead of paint, and  in 3 dimensional art which includes, moulding the paper over cardboard  and layering and shaping the paper into highly detailed sculptured objects.

I recently came across  the work of Cheong-Ah Hwang, a Hanji Artist, in a book called, 'Creative Paper Cutting'. 

Cheong-Ah Hwang was born in South Korea and now lives in Ohio, USA.  Her parents ran a print shop in Seoul and as a child she developed an affinity for experimenting and creating with paper.  In the late 1990's she began exploring paper sculptures and studied carefully different artists' works before  experimenting and teaching herself  a variety of techniques that suited the style of pieces she wanted to achieve. 

Cheong-Ah  cuts and moulds paper into delicate 3D art that is almost 2 D, but not quite.  The cuts and layers give the final object depth and form, but it  essentially  remains a flat piece. She  is now working as an independent artist, guest demonstrator, conference presenter and freelance illustrator. 


Pictured here are some beautiful humming birds which are one of her favourite subjects for paper sculptures and I can see why.  The  details of the feathers cut out of the delicate Japanese (but I'm sure Hanji  could also be used) paper give the sculpture a jewel-like quality with every layer being cut adding to the texture of the sculpture. I love the amazing wings cut out of a delicate, almost translucent, Hanji paper which show a contrast between the smaller and the larger wing feathers.


There is so much detail that I could look at the pictures for hours. What an amazing skill to make these delicately sculptured pieces of art.  I'm in awe !!

For more of her work check out this Pinterest website or you can buy some of her pieces on ETSY .

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

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