Patience, patience, patience ....

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 on some doors to inquire in case anyone knew where I could find studio space but, so far no leads there.

I did however meet some very nice people who are going to look out for me and I feel that with their help something will turn up really soon.

It's early days yet and I still have other options of studio space to explore, some of which are a little further afield but as long as I can continue doing what I love that's not going to matter.

In the meantime I've started on a new project as you can see. It's a Korean tea table made in the traditional Hanji way but I'm using a very different paper to try to create a more modern appeal to the craft.

I'll keep you posted as to how it all goes ......

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 and its traditional religions. In both Confucianism and Buddhism

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 swastika is derived from the Sanskrit swastika which means, "conducive to well

Online Hanji paper store, in English .....

I'm really pleased to be able to share with you this website where you can order a variety of Hanji papers from Korea and it's all in English !!! The store is based in Daejon, Korea. HAMINBRIDGE ( Thehanji ) was established by Moonyang Park in 1983. It's a family owned 2nd generation business and they have a factory in Junju. They also have a factory in China where some of the paper is made. The website is at www. thehanji.com and it provides a selection of specialty Hanji paper (Korean paper) and products. I ordered some papers from them recently to see what it was like and they were extremely efficient in dealing with the order and it was here in the UAE within 5 days so I was really impressed. The prices were good and they even have some on special, the paper is beautiful and the ease of ordering was amazing. They do sell rolls of paper, traditional papers and lanterns but overall I did think the range was a bit limited for what I wa

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