Hanji Happenings

Last week one of my students came along to class with a lamp where the shade had been broken and wondered what we could do to make a new one for it. She wanted it to look Art Deco, black and white, not too big and something that threw out plenty of light, all of this  using Hanji techniques.  There's nothing like a new challenge !! ART DECO -  'It is an eclectic style that combines traditional craft motifs with Machine Age imagery and materials. The style is often characterized by rich colours, bold geometric shapes and lavish ornamentation ...... 'During its heyday, Art Deco represented luxury, glamour, exuberance and faith in social and technological progress.. - Wikipedia                                           This was never going to be a traditional Korean Hanji project but I was going to be able to use a lot of  techniques that I'd recently learnt in Korea  and I could also use Hanji paper . After researching and pondering over photo

      S ince my return to Australia, I've had so many people ask me           'What does Hanji mean and what is this craft?'.  Because I've been doing Hanji for the last 15 years I sometime presume that everybody knows what it is so I've prepared a short explanation as a handout for my students and thought that I'd share it with you.                  HANJI - a traditional Korean Craft     ‘Han’ refers to the Korean people and ‘ji’ means paper. Hanji is the term used to describe Korean paper and it is also used to describe the art of making objects out of the paper. It’s a paper made from the bark of the mulberry tree ‘dak’ and is one of Korea’s oldest and most durable products, dating back to the Three Kingdoms period around 130 AD. Mulberry bark produces a low acidity paper. The quality of each sheet depends on the skill of the workers who prepare the depth and complexity of intertwined fibers by swishing the bamboo