Hanji Happenings

Tomorrow I'm heading off to Korea for a week with two of my Hanji ladies, Tricia and Anna and a few husbands. The ladies are going to explore the Hanji shops and meet up with like minded friends who love doing Hanji whilst our husbands check out the Art district of Insadong. It's been two years since I was there and I'm looking forward to seeing any new papers that are available and checking out the latest designs in the Hanji paper, Hanji craft creations and hardware. It's always much nicer to be able to see and feel the papers rather than ordering online.  I also have a long list of things to get for other people so it's going to be a challenge to find everything, but I'll do what I can. On Sunday at 4 pm I'll be giving a talk at Jankura Artspace in Itaewon, Seoul called 'Hanji - after Korea'.  This came about because  so many people have been asking me questions about  Hanji. If you're in Seoul do come along. It'll be aimed at  exp...

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 swastik...

This year is racing by and the dates for the annual Jeonju Hanji Culture Festival in Korea for 2014 have just been announced.  When May 3rd to May, 6th, 2014 Address Pungnamdong1-ga, Wansan-gu, Jeonju-si, Jeollabuk-do 전라북도 전주시 완산구 전주천동로 20 (교동) Location Jeonju Hanok Village, Hanji Industry Support Center area Telephone • 1330 Travel Hotline: +82-2-1330 (Korean, English, Japanese, Chinese) • For more info: +82-63-271-2503, +82-63-281-2931 (Korean) Street performers The Hanji Festival is organis...

'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.  ...

Over the last six weeks I've been working on making this 50 cm tall x 40 cm wide cabinet out of cardboard and Hanji paper.  Completed cabinet I now have instructions on how to make this so if anyone is interested I'll be posting it on my website in the next week or so along with about 5 other worksheets for sale from Sets of drawers to a divided box and lamps of different shapes and sizes.  These worksheets will enable you to cut out and make your own pieces of Hanji which is especially useful if kits aren't available.  It gives you the flexibility to create your own articles, add your own details and the satisfaction of knowing you made it completely by yourself. For my cabinet, about the size suitable for a bedside table, I choose a traditional white paper with writing on it for the inside of the cabinet and a brown mottled specialty paper with an imprint of cats on it for the outside.  I then trimmed it with a traditional border design in b...

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...

UPCOMING HANJI EVENTS  Here are a couple of interesting events  that involve Hanji in one form or another that are going to be on this month. So if you live in the United States or are going to be visiting you may be interested in checking them out. MAKE YOUR WISH ON HANJI   Sunday Feb. 9th, 1 pm at Flushing Town Hall, New York 137-35 Northern Blvd, Flushing New York, 11354, USA As part of the Asian New Year Celebrations you will have an opportunity to get Korean folk paintings drawn on hanji (Korean traditional mulberry paper). Write your wishes for the new year on hanji and create a one-of-a-kind art piece to take home. Cost:  $10 (materials included)  This one looks like it'd be good for the children and adults alike. HANJI: Contemporary Korean Paper Art   Feb. 6th - April 13th The Muckenthaler Cultural Center, 1201 West Malvern Avenue, Fullerton, CA 92833, USA Artists: Young Hoon Kim...