Hanji Happenings

Last week during my travels to Australia I was fortunate enough to meet up with a fellow Hanji artist,  Kyung Young Moon  in Scotsdale, Tasmania.  I'd seen her work and was anxious to meet this lady in person. She is a Korean who has been based in Tasmania for the past 6 years.  Her worked is exhibited in galleries around Australia including the cities of Melbourne, Sydney and Hobart. Her background is in Fine Arts and Industrial design and therefore she's been able to bring those skills to this craft by designing new pieces and painting on the articles she has made. For the last 3 years Trinity, as she calls herself, has been one of the celebrity artists at the Deloraine Craft Fair in Tasmania. Here is an excerpt from an article in the Tasmania Mercury by Nick Clark in November, 2011. 'A KOREAN interpretation of the Tasmanian landscape and lifestyle is behind much of the hanji paper work of paper artist Trinity Cleary. Her persimmon tree and ot...

Here is a guest article on Hanji by Lucy Faraday written especially for Hanji Happenings.  Lucy is  29 years old and has been working full-time as a professional writer and researcher for five years; in that time she's covered pretty much everything but as an amateur artist and photographer she tends to focus on the arts . Hanji   Hanji is both a form of acid-free handmade paper originating from Korea, crafted from the inner bark of the paper mulberry tree (chomok), and an artform. For the Korean people hanji is a way of life, with hanji being used for a multitude of different everyday purposes. From its early days as use for recording government documents, hanji has been used for anything from window coverings and ropes through to books, ornaments and household goods. There are three sub-species of mulberry growing in different climatic areas of Korea, which give different qualities of paper, ideally suited to different uses, from calligraphy through to wal...

Since arriving in Adelaide I've been wanting to go visit a Art & Craft shop in the city believing that they will have the materials I need to do Hanji once I get back here  in a few years time and start up my business.   I knew that they had a small selection of both Korean and Japanese Mulberry papers  so I went to investigate.  It was interesting to see what papers Eckersley's had  and from the range of about 15 different papers I bought 3 or 4 different ones that I don't have in my personal stock.  I  know that I can order a much better range online directly from Korea or from the U.S. therefore it's not going to be too much of a problem to source the paper on my return.  Next I went to check out the carboard and was disappointed to find that they only stock the 1mm and 2mm thick board. I was told that they can't get the 3mm cardboard so unless I can source it from somewhere else I will need to glue together a 1mm and a 2...

Summer break with family and friends means being able to spend time with my six, soon to be seven, year old identical twin granddaughters Jasmine and Tamika.   You ask me, "How can you tell them apart?,  well, unless I'm looking at them straight on, or I take note of what clothes they're wearing on any particular day, then I do have difficulty.  They're great though and if I call them the wrong name they just casually reply, "I'm Jasmine/Tamika" and keep on with what they're doing. We've been working on a craft project together over the last week and they're making butterfly lanterns. It's not quite Hanji but it's still working with paper, only in a different way.  I hope when they're a little older and I'm settled back in Australia I'll be able to work on some Hanji projects with them as well. Children are amazing when given the opportunity to create, the materials to work with and the directions to guide the...

Apologies if my posts become less frequent over the next few weeks as I'm currently on a summer break in Australia visiting family and friends who I haven't seen for the last year. I will be exploring any Hanji options open to people in Australia and I'll keep you up to date with what's going on in this part of the world. If you're reading this blog and you know of any Hanji group in Australia I'd love to hear from you...........

During my recent trip to South Korea I noticed that  the Andong Paper Factory showroom was filled with many large items of hanji covered with intricate patterns and designs.  I marveled at the many pieces but didn't understand how they could all be made available for sale, personally if I'd put hours and hours into a large piece of work I'd be reluctant to put it up for sale.   I really wanted to have a lesson with the lady who was making them and after a lot of negotiating I managed to book  one for myself and my friends. When I lived in Korea, maybe it was because I was taught to do Hanji the  'old school' way by a very traditional Korean lady,  but I only knew of cutouts being done by hand.  They took me a long time so I was wondering how on earth I could make a lovely jewelry box in a 3 hour lesson !!   Gui - Sook Yang's workshop had the answer.   She had a huge room filled with cardboard cutouts mad...

The HANJI CREW   based in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota   in the United States are a group of  adoptive mums with Korean children with a passion for doing Hanji.    This small business is a place where they can make and sell their products at regular sales events as well as online with donations from their proceeds  going to adoption-related agencies, so that they can keep connected. It's truly a worthwhile cause. If you live in the the Minnesota area in the U.S. you may be interested in attending one of their summer Hanji workshops w ith projects for every level from beginners to experts. The base group are adoptive mums but anyone is welcome to attend with previous events catering for people from all walks of life.  The upcoming workshops  are to be held at   Korean Heritage House   from 6 -9pm at : July 11  July 25   August 8  August 22 To register, send an email to th...