Hanji Happenings

My Hanji exhibition is officially open and it was a memorable evening on Thursday night when people gathered around at Mrs Harris' Art Studio to  look at Hanji crafts. There was a wonderful atmosphere of anticipation as people came by to see what Hanji was all about, to have drinks & nibbles and to hear some impromptu speeches in an informal setting outside the shop.  Here in Australia, the Thursday before Easter is NOT the ideal time to have an Exhibition opening. Many people take the opportunity to escape the city for the 4 day holiday break but with time restraints on getting the Exhibition set up, and to have it open for a full month before I head to Korea, the Gallery owner and myself took a gamble and were pleasantly surprised at the turn out it attracted.  Family, friends and strangers came and were amazed at the broad range of articles that can be made with Hanji and were fascinated by it's lightness, durability and practicality for everyday use...

Over the last 15 years I've been fortunate enough to have traveled to many different countries with a wide variety of cultures, history and traditions.  I've lived in 3 of those countries for reasonable lengths of time and many people have asked the question, "Which is your favourite?" I ask, "How am I expected to answer that when each has had it's own unique attractions and influences on my life?"  Let me first define attractions, 'the action or power of evoking interest in or liking for someone or something'. These aren't necessarily only on the outside, which  most tourists get a glimpse of,  but when you're fortunate enough to live in a country for any length of time you soon find out that they each have many depths of character (colours) which include the geographical, architectural, cultural, societal, and religious aspects as well. This depth of character is what the country is really all about.               ...

I've just completed another umbrella stand and this time I've chosen a crinkled Hanji paper to give the piece texture and an almost marble type effect.  On the top and bottom I've used a pale blue underneath the beige coloured cut out, as a trim,  and it's papered inside with a piece of Hanji that has small Chinese writing on it. As I was papering the pot I had it lying on my table and guess who ...... decided it was a comfortable  place to sleep. I didn't think he'd stay there long once I started working on the piece but he wasn't phased by me having to rotate it every few minutes to put on the paper as he just  moved his position inside  and continued sleeping.  The joys of being a cat .......

'What cardboard shall I use for the cutouts'? 'How thick should the cardboard be'? 'What knife shall I use'? 'What Hanji paper shall I cover it with'? and most importantly, 'What will it look like? These were some of the questions going through my mind as I began a new project this weekend. For many years I've been admiring  pieces of furniture in Hanji that display an embossed effect. I first saw some at the Jeonju Hanji Festival back in 2001 and I loved the subtle effect that it gives to a piece and have been curious as to to how it's done. I've also seen it in some Korean  Hanji books  and It looked so simple and so I thought it  was  time to give it a try. I'd made up a tall Umbrella stand and I decided it was a good base on which to apply this technique. The first challenge was deciding what cardboard to use for the cutouts so I went with 1mm thick and cut out the designs. This was quite a challenge to say the l...