Specialty papers .....

Whilst we were wandering through the back streets of Insadong a few weeks ago we discovered this shop called Jang's Paper which sold specialty handmade papers. When talking to the lady in the shop she said her father made the paper and she sold it. As we entered the walls looked like slabs of marble but on closer inspection I realised that they were sheets of paper. This wasn't just any hanji paper shop but one with very different designs and much more upmarket prices. Hanging in the corner were large sheets of paper approx 6 times the size of normal sheets I buy and they were from $150 US a sheet.

Smaller sheets about half the size were from $20 US a sheet so I just looked in awe at the designs and the quality of the paper. You'd really need a special project to use them on.

I did discover some finer paper for the glass on lamps in white, with designs imprinted into the paper by using more and lesser depths of fibres so I had to indulge and buy a few of these.

It was an exciting find and one which I'd love to explore further.

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 ......

Hanji Happenings

Search This Blog