Hanji Happenings

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...

In the last few weeks I've finally found the time to concentrate on setting up my Hanji business.  Unrealistically I want everything to happen at once. I'd like to find a place to conduct classes and to be instantly organised so that I can get started. My mind knew that it wasn't going to happen but my heart was really hoping otherwise. Despite my slight despondency I've had an interesting and very enjoyable week of networking with some of the local artists including painters, ceramicist and print-makers  as well as meeting up with a few of my neighbors.  One of them took me to look through a local warehouse that's currently being fitted out for an Aboriginal artist to hold exhibitions in and it'll also be occupied by a print-maker who wants a part of it as her studio but unfortunately, the rest of the space is already fully taken. This area of Brompton and Bowden has so many lovely old shopfronts that are not being used so I've knocked ...

As I've often mentioned, it's almost impossible to get books in English or in Korean on Hanji crafts  therefore, on my recent trip to South Korea it was one of my goals to source as many books as I could from the home of Hanji.   Over the years I've been looking both online and in book stores all over the world for any Hanji books I can find in English  and unfortunately, I've only come up with a very small selection thus far. During my trip to Seoul earlier this month it was important for me to go and check out the largest book store in Seoul, Kyobo, to see what they might have.  Finding the shop after so many years was quite easy  and the taxi driver knew exactly where to take me so once in the store I rushed up to the English counter and after some communication problems it was finally decided that there was nothing on Hanji in English. Plan A had failed but it really wasn't a total let down as I suspected this is what might happen but I guess...

For an interesting textured effect and to create something that's quite unique you can use fabric under your Hanji paper. I found this set of drawers being made in the Hanji Doori store in Insadong, Seoul. I've never seen this effect before so was fascinated to have it explained to me by Catherine. Here you can see that strips of a very course  burlap   or hessian have been glued on to the top of this set of drawers to give it an interesting  texture, as well as a unique look. It was then covered with a thick black paper and lightly bleached to accentuate the weave. On the drawer fronts a finer fabric, possibly a finer burlap but I'm sure you could use anything that has texture, has been glued onto the cardboard before applying two coats of paper. The fabric has been placed in different directions on each drawer to give them all an individual look.   Although I'm not a great lover of the colour purple I do love the graded colours of these ...

Hanji Doori is a shop and it also has a great online web page(in Korean) where you can order all of their supplies.  The shop displays a large range of Hanji craft supplies and on this trip to Seoul I found it tucked away on the 3rd floor of a building in Insadong. You can  buy, papers, cutouts, molds, hardware, kits with paper, kits without paper, brushes, glues and electrical fittings for lamps. As is often the case, these shops are discovered by word of mouth amongst the expat community and I became aware of its location through the networking I was able to do at the presentation 'Hanji - After Korea' in Seoul, last week.    It was great to walk into the shop and find a lovely lady, Catherine, who spoke very good English because she had spent some time in New Zealand, and she was able to answer all my questions about Hanji.  The shop has a great range of neatly set out products and a workroom where students can take 3 months cours...

We all have people who inspire us, some closer to us than others but some, you just can't forget. A dear Korean friend of mine, Monica, gave me this tiny paper replica of a Korean Hanbok, delicately made by her out of scraps of Hanji paper many years ago and to this day it sits proudly on my pin board in my Hanji Studio as  a special reminder  of a lady who first helped me discover Hanji.  It's just one of those little things you can't throw away. When Ron and I first arrived in Korea in the year 2000 it was a time filled with excitement for  us both and especially for me as an Australian who'd been brought up in a country with a mere 250 year history and who was now being given the opportunity to live and work in  this rich culture with traditions dating back many thousands of years.   Once the initial excitement  of our move overseas had died down and the reality set in we initially found it quite challenging living and...

During my recent visit to India I took the opportunity to visit Kagzi handmade paper factory in the district of Sanganer, 16 kms south of  Jaipur in the state of Rahjastan.  It's famous for it's handmade paper industry, textile printing and for Jain temples. Around 10 handmade paper industries are present in Sanganer so I was interested to see the difference between how they made paper in India and the way the Korean 'Hanji' is made. The process of manually manufacturing handmade paper, in either country, has changed very little over the centuries, despite all the advances in technologies but it's useful to note, that paper making started in Korea somewhere between 200 - 500 AD whereas it was only introduced into India in 1728. Therefore, Korea has by far a much longer history of paper making. There are generally around five steps in making paper: 1. Separating the  fiber from the rest of raw materials. (e. g. cellulose from wood, cotton, etc.) 2. Be...

Karen Bit Vejle or Bit , as she's commonly referred to, is Danish and she's a paper cutter who explores the world of psaligraphy . It all sounds very simple doesn't it but her pieces are intricately magnificent and her works have been exhibited all over the world.   As Bit says,   'If my art can make you stop and wonder for just one instant, I think that would be wonderful'. Psaligraphy is a very slow art that is achieved with paper and a small pair of scissors.  It's a precise art where even the smallest of mistakes can  be disastrous and it's also a fine art that is linked to the past, even right back in the 1st Century when the Chinese invented paper and started cutting it before they used it for writing. The art of paper cutting is especially popular in Asia and one of the areas known to me is in Korean Hanji. In Hanji we use a small knife rather than scissors and trace over patterns but, as far as I'm aware, with psaligraphy it...

Here is a list of International Hanji Events for 2013 and their descriptions, written by the respective or ganisers    ........... if you know of any others  I'd love to hear from you so we can all share in what is going on in this every globalising world of Hanji. KOREA        Jeonju Hanji Festiva l   I've been to this event and it's absolutely amazing.  The Hanji  Artists   from around     the country come together to show their best work   for the year. I remember when I was in Korea my teacher was   showing her work and it was hailed as a must visit   event for anyone   interested in Hanji. The Korean Men and 'Ajimah's' are very  serious   about producing the  most amazing pieces of  furniture,  boxes,   screens  and lamps.  I was  blown away by what I saw.      When: - p...