Hanji Happenings

Beginner Hanji Classes  When:                   May 2nd - June 6th                             10.30 am - 12.30pm Where:                 Station master's Art Gallery ' Red Hen' workshop                            20 South Terrace,                             Strathalbyn, South Australia Phone:               +61(08) 8536 4263 Level:                ...

I'm back .......... Merry Christmas and a Happy 2018 to you all.  I've taken a longer than expected break from doing Hanji and spent 2017 involved in family and household commitments but am now raring to get back into being creative once again and am committed to updating my blog more regularly this year. Last year  my main Hanji event was an exhibition called 'Dissolve' in Sydney at the Korean Cultural Centre where I was asked to take part in an exhibition along with 4 other Australian artists who have been influencd by Korean Culture.  (I'll write more about that in other post). In the meantime keep checking back for more of my inspirations and creations for 2018 ....

On the Melbourne Korea Week program there was a fabulous fashion show by fashion designer Hanbok Lynn who'd come from Korea to showcase her beautiful hanbok creations.  They weren't made of Hanji but they were stunning.  Here's a glimpse of the creations and the details that I was able to capture.  The children were adorable...   Then there were the details ......   Beautiful .....

  K- Paper (Hanji) Culture Festival   from 15 Feb - 29 Feb, 2016 at the Korean Cultural Centre, Sydney, Australia more information at info@koreanculture.org.au Ph: 02 8267 3400 15 Feb.               - Opening & Hanji Fashion Show 15 Feb - 29 Feb - Hanji Craft Exhibition 15 Feb - 16 Feb - Workshop experiences 15 Feb - 16 Feb - Paper Market I'll be there as I've been asked to be involved in the Festival, so as the only non Korean  I feel extremely privileged that they will have 5 of my pieces at the exhibition for the 2 weeks of the festival. I'm delighted and I can't help but reflect on what a wonderful way to help improve relations between Australia and South Korea by being able to appreciate the respective Cultures and their Arts. 'People can only live fully by helping others to live. When you give life to friends you truly live. Cultures can only realize their further richness...

Korean traditional  flower shoes are called Hwahye.  Hwa is a generic term for any type of footwear and hye means a short version of shoes that don't cover the ankle. There were over 20 different types of Hwahye shoes  that were worn during the Joseon dynasty and they indicated a persons status and  varied according to someones age, social class and gender.  Silk embroidered They  are traditionally decorated in bright flamboyant colours and patterns and are made in either leather, silk, wood or even rubber.  The rubber version was introduced in the 1920s during the  Japanese colonial period from 1910 to 1945 but these days they're only worn by the monks. A good use for the old rubber shoes As the Joseon Dynasty social hierachy crumbled  in the early 1900's and Korea began to become more globalized in their outlook and customs the need for the different varieties of Hwahye  became less necessary and during the 1930's...

The City of Jeonju  annually holds the Jeonju Hanji Culture Festival along with the National Hanji Craft Contest to promote the excellence of it's paper. In 2015 it's celebrating it's 19th anniversary and I've been fortunate enough to visit  the Festival after an absence of almost 12 years.  The last time I visited was when I was living in Pusan and Teaching English as a Second Language to students at the National University. I was encouraged to make the trip  by my Korean Hanji teacher who was adamant that Jeonju Hanji was the best you could buy. Jeonju is the centre of Hanji production in Korea and the base for 50% of the domestic Hanji manufacturers, and they currently account for 80% of the Hanji production in the country.  Hanji has always been famous throughout the Orient.  It was one of Korea's top exports during the 11th Century and a lthough it's been used as long-lasting paper for over a thousand years, it's more recently bee...

Here is a new Hanji lamp I've made especially for my current exhibition. I wanted to mix some old techniques of cutouts with one of my  newer, more modern looking paper
s. The paper has threads of green, blue yellow and pink mixed in with a pale blue pulp that's been rather sparsely placed over a white background. I've placed a butterfly of varying colour shades on each of its sides so that it looks like they're trying to get into the windows of the lamp. The butterfly means joy and conjugal love in Korean folklore so I’ve combined both the traditional and non traditional aspects of Hanji to highlight the intertwining of modern Korean society with their traditional past.


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...

This week I've tried to maximize my time and instead of cutting Hanji items out of cardboard by hand, I decided to piece together some of the kits I've collected over the years. Many of these kits are more than 10 years old and have been with me since I left Korea and during my travels to different countries around the world. These days I usually cut out my own items using a thick cardboard and a very sharp craft knife using one of the patterns I've drawn up.  The beauty of this is that because of a lot of trial and correction over the years I now know that everything fits nicely. There's always the odd occasion when lines aren't cut as precisely as they should be and small tweaks need to be made, but they're usually very easily correctable. What I've found is that I can't assume that the kits are going to be better and quicker as well as producing a more precise article. You would expect that this would be the case with machinery doi...