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Malaysian hanji ?


                            I've been an expat for over 12 years now and time has gone so fast. After living in Korea for 3 years and learning about hanji, my husband and I moved to Malaysia.   I wanted to continue doing Hanji so I thought that I'd make something with a Malaysian flavour. 

I chose the hibiscus flower (bungaraya) to dominate a tea table. It's the National flower of Malaysia and I hadn't seen it used very much in Korean Hanji despite the fact that the cutouts I was using were from a Korean  book..



I knew the techniques of what to do and  I worked for weeks on choosing papers, making cutouts and creating my piece of 'Malaysian Hanji'. 
I was really pleased with the results of the cutouts, colourings and application but unfortunately when I went to varnish it the humid weather in Malaysia reacted to the varnish when applied. 

Consequently I made very few hanji items during my stay there.

Maybe I'll make a piece of UAE hanji and have camels on it !!!

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