Hanji lessons learnt .........

Our Hanji happenings tour to Korea was a resounding success.

Three of us set off from the UAE with a single focus of sourcing out hanji papers and a wish to improve our hanji making skills through instruction and discussions with other hanji artists.

What I personally discovered was how far hanji has come from the old traditional methods of cutting and pasting to the modern laser cutting and mass production of hanji objects.

Laser cutouts

The jewelry box I made in 3 hours

I emailed ahead and organised a 3 hour lesson with Gui-Sook Yang at the Andong Paper factory and we learnt how quick and easy it is to produce an item by using paper print outs then placing laser cutouts on top.

I'm well aware of the long and painstacking traditional methods of producing a hanji item but I now realise how automated this craft has become to cater for the growing demand, mainly by tourists, for these craft items.

Paper heaven

The Andong Factory has a huge selection of papers and we all enjoyed choosing papers to bring back to the UAE for our new projects. It was such a treat to be able to walk into this shop and choose the papers off the shelf rather than order them on line.

Gui-Sook Yang and her daughter Sue

I'll write more about the things we found out about our craft in the following postings.......

Comments

Lotus symbol in Korean culture .....

In traditional Korean Hanji art you can see many different designs of plants, animals, letters and insects. I'm sure you've wondered what they all symbolise as they are repeated so often and in many different ways. In this post I just want to take a brief look at the lotus plant and what it symbolises for the Korean people. I've used this design on a few articles but I never really knew the full meaning of what it represented until I started doing some research for my book. Even though many of us aren't Korean we can still use these designs and in so doing, translate a deeper meaning to our articles. Here are a just a few of my favourites from the easiest to the more difficult to cut out. The lotus flower symbolises creation, birth, liveability and reproduction and therefore it's one of the most important symbols in both Korean culture a...

The Buddhist symbol, Hanji & Korean culture ....

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...

HANJI TRIVIA - Punjabi 'Hanji' .......

When researching about Hanji I've come across many sites that relate to the word 'hanji' being used in Punjabi, one of the Indian languages. There's a band called 'Cornershop' that made a CD in 1997 called, "When I was Born for the Seventh Time' and at the beginning of the song, which I believe was originally sung in Punjabi, they use the word Hanji. In Punjabi both 'han' and 'ji' mean yes. When talking informally to a person they use 'han' but if speaking to an elder or a person with a superior status then they put the two words together and say 'hanji'. You just never know when this word might be used ......

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