A surprise inside .......

The inside of the drawers

I've just completed another interesting set of classes where the students have amazed me with their creativity, imagination in paper choices and ability to read and interpret my worksheets.

Carol cutting out her base

After the initial cutting out and putting together of the item the fun began. The students decided on the colours and patterns of the Hanji paper they wanted to use for their pieces as well as the designs that were to be put on them. They always vary. Sometimes they choose darker colours that make the items look like wood, othertimes traditional patterned papers and designs and then occasionally someone chooses the bright & the bold .

I surmise that paper choices show a lot about a person's personality and moods. I know in the past I've tended to go for more subdued colours and patterns in my favourites of browns, greens and yellows but just now and again I have that urge to make something completely different.

Anna's traditionally designed patterned paper and design on top

I won't go through all the choices that were made but Sue decided on papering hers in a bright red with a Korean print on the paper and the drawers were in red with bright yellow inside the drawers. She had an old Nepalese calendar that was made of natural, handmade paper so she cut out the designs and put them inside the drawers as a 'surprise' upon opening them. It wasn't as easy as it sounds because when she started pasting them in, the water coloured paint that'd been used started to run. This then meant that she needed to do it very carefully and slowly to prevent spoiling the picture.

Here's a set of drawers made in the traditional Korean way but decorated with a mixture of two cultures, Korean and Nepalese and I think it works really well.

This is one of my greatest joys in doing Hanji the fact that you can adapt, invent and create in so many ways.

I love them all from the traditional to the bold .......

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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