Hanji Happenings

Jean Pierre Gouy, Le artisan papetier .  I love the sound of this title which simply means, 'the artisan paper or the paper artist'. Jean Pierre has been making paper for almost 40 years now, in fact he started in 1977. He works alone in his home studio on a small farm situated in Les Bordes commune, near Saint-Clement in North Central France.  On Day 2 of our paper tour in France our bus wound its way along the tiny back roads with the ever vigilant Chantall, our tour guide, asking directions at every turn until we found his residence nestled in the rolling green hills of the beautiful French countryside. Jean Pierre Gouy Jean Pierre's business goes under the name of Les Papiers du Mou lin {The papers of the mill) and we were fortunate enough to visit La Maison du papier et de l'imprimerie (The paper and printing house) situated in a few of his well equipped farm sheds. Shaking the frame filled with fibres to extract the water This a...

What inspires us to make certain Hanji pieces? For me it's often  a dormant idea in my mind and it comes out years later when certain factors all come together.                        I took this photo many years ago at Haeinsa Temple just outside Busan. I'm not Buddhist but  when we lived in Busan I use to love going up to this hugely impressive Buddhist temple  because of the serenity of the surrounding hillside and the beautiful gardens. I could sit there for hours and just take in the views, peace and tranquility of the space. The biggest downside for me was that I wasn't always that fit and the Buddhist temples are usually set high up in the mountainside and require a lot of uphill climbing before you get to see the temple and the wonderful views.  In this photo I was looking back down the long, winding path I'd just climbed and it was ...