Paper - its good for the Seoul

I've recently returned from holidays in Japan (again) as well as a few days in Seoul, the capital of South Korea.

I was interested in visiting Seoul, given South Korea's reputation for its paper, Hanji.  I found a couple of shops in the Insa-dong area, amongst the tacky tourist shops and restauranteurs touting for business.

The best shop I found is known as Ilsindang.  As usual, its hard to find places using street addresses, but luckily I had walking instructions from another blogger (thanks!).  Find Starbucks (easy), look across the road and up, and there it is.  I could see the paper lanterns alight in the window....magic!

The shop was full of paper goodies - hanji papers, glues, brushes, templates.  Unfortunately for me the people in the shop only spoke Korean, so I just had to help myself.  I've still got a large stash of Japanese papers from my last trip so I had to restrict myself to just a few goodies.

I loved the lanterns, so have included a few photos here (I was thinking of you Ngaire....!).

paper, paper, paper

more paper, almost overwhelming....!

I bought one of the plastic templates for this lantern,
to work on at home

Detail showing the beautiful paper

Like a beautiful rich pumpkin!

The pinholes in this lantern make a beautiful effect.

Kamikoya - making paper the traditional japanese way

I've just returned from 2 weeks in Japan (my 6th trip!).  This trip was focussing on paper, paper, and more paper.......

I engaged Phil and Kazuko from the boutique tour company ShumiStay (on facebook 'Shumi Stay Japan') to take myself and fellow Papermakers to explore traditional Japanese hand papermaking techniques.

The highlight of our trip was a 2 day workshop at Kamikoya (http://kamikoya-washi.com/english) with Rogier Uitenboogaart and his family.  During the trip we also visited paper museums and shops and villages specialising in papermaking.

We returned home with hand made papers of Kozo and Mitsumata fibers, and a firm resolve to incorporate more traditional and more organic processes into our papermaking practices.

All decked out in our papermaking uniforms -
heavy plastic aprons and gum boots.

Beating the fibres by hand -
its all about rhythm and trying not to
splatter your fellow papermakers with fibre!

Stirring the vat, there's a special technique for that too.

Rogier guiding me through forming a sheet.
It was challenging but a great experience.

The happy group at the end of the workshop, with
Rogier and his wife and son.

Rogier with his assistant Michael.
Thanks guys!

Papers drying on boards.  It rained most of the time we were at Kamikoya
so the papers had to be posted to us a week later.

My futon bed at our traditional accommodation
onsite at Kamikoya.

Some of the local scenery, misty with rain.  The bright
green area in the foreground is rice ready to harvest.

Tunnel Book

A tunnel book has been on my 'to do' list for some time.  I've made models and played around but never constructed a finished work.

The opportunity to make a 'real' tunnel book finally presented itself in the form of excess monoprints from a print run that I created for a group exhibition 'Elements'.

I intrepreted the theme 'Elements' into the 5 elements of Japanese Buddhism.  Japanese stone lanterns are one of the most common representations of these five elements, known as 'Godai', "five great". Each section of the lantern represents one of the five elements - earth, wind, fire, wind and void.

I've visited Japan a few times (5 times plus another trip planned this year) and my tunnel book was inspired by my love of Japanese culture and the beauty of their gardens.  Using the tunnel format, I have creatively reimagined the layered viewpoints of a garden, looking through ginkgo trees across the pond to the stone lantern, the koi swimming in the water below.

I started the process by making a prototype out of photocopy paper, then set to work cutting out elements of my rejected prints.  I used strong black card to make the framework of the book.

To house the book and protect it, I created a black cover secured with a Japanese bone clasp.

Tunnel books are interesting as they're like little
theatres, where each panel makes up the final layered image.
The final 3D image is like looking across a vista in a
Japanese garden.

Looking into the book from the side front.

The closed cover, made of box board and mulberry paper,
with the bone clasp

Looking down into the book

You can see I've attached the monoprint images onto each panel.