Statement
Korean Paper Jewelry
Jiseung Jewelry
"These characteristics of 'Hanji' came to me as a very suitable material to freely express the volume of jewelry without the restriction of weight."
I have been working with various Korean traditional craft techniques and designs as motifs.
While exploring and experimenting with the properties of various materials, I came across 'Hanji'
Hanji is a paper made with a unique Korean manufacturing method and is made from the bark of mulberry trees.
Hanji is well ventilated, tough, and has excellent preservation power. In addition, if it is made into a three-dimensional object by weaving single and double strings, it has excellent durability to maintain its shape even when wet, and is light above all else.
These characteristics of 'Hanji' came to me as a very suitable material to freely express the volume of jewelry without the restriction of weight.
My jewelry was made using Korean paper called 'Hanji' as the main material, using the traditional Korean craft technique which is called 'Jiseung Craft'.
'Jiseung' refers to a paper string made by cutting long a piece of Hanji made with a unique Korean technique and twisting it together.
And 'Jiseung Craft' refers to the technique of cutting long and thin Hanji, rubbing it with fingertips to make a string, and twisting the string into a double string to make various objects, also called "Noweokgae."
Jiseung craft originated from the days when paper was scarce, when scholars of the Joseon Dynasty cut and twisted the paper from the books they had studied to make various objects. In the days when materials were scarce, crafts made from paper were used as luxury items for the upper class at the time, and you can find Jiseung relics such as various boxes, bowls, pencil cases, bags, and quivers at the museum.
I felt very sorry that these unique works of art were stuffed as relics in the museum, and I wanted to breathe new life into jewelry and bring it into everyday life. Such aspirations naturally led me to make Jiseung jewelry.
My Jiseung jewelry is completed through a series of processes of continuously weaving and connecting by making yarn from paper.
Two single strings are twisted to make a double string, and the shape is woven by intersecting with the warp and weft thread. When it has a specific appearance, it is coated with dilute sticky rice paste two to three times. The repetitive act of continuously weaving and connecting without cutting, immediately bring me into a calm and meditative state.
And, seeing the finished product finally revealed as a specific object after a long period of work, I feel a pleasant and wonderful feeling as if facing the self within me. In short, work is an act of meeting me. And Hanji is a tool, a challenge, and an object of enjoyable exploration to express the inner self more abundantly. In the future, I want to experiment more my jewelry with 'Jiseung', and I want to complete my own skills and voice as an artist, not just inheriting traditional techniques.