I have always been interested in traditional Korean crafts, and have been learning traditional craft techniques from artisans in each field to create jewelries and ornaments that reinterpret tradition.
While exploring and experimenting with the materiality and craft techniques of various materials, ranging from metal crafts, textile work based on the traditional Korean knitting technique called ‘ Gyubang Crafts,’ Traditional knotting, Natural dyeing, Sedge crafts, and Hanji crafts, I came across hanji(Korean paper) and Jiseung crafts.
‘Hanji’ is a paper made using a unique Korean manufacturing method and is made from the bark of the mulberry tree. Hanji is breathable, tough, and has excellent conservative force.
In addition, when it is woven with single and double strings to create a three-dimensional object, it has excellent durability to the point where it maintains its shape even when wet, and above all, it is light. These characteristics of Hanji came to me as a very suitable material for freely expressing the volume of jewelry without weight constraints and gave me tremendous freedom in my creative work.
My jewelry is made using traditional Korean craft techniques called Jiseung Craft, using Hanji as the main material.'Jiseung' refers to cutting Hanji into long strips and twisting them. And, 'Jiseung Craft' refers to the technique of cutting Korean paper into thin and long pieces, rubbing it with the fingertips to make strings, twisting the two strings to make a double string, and using the double string as the warp and the single string as the weft to make various objects. Jiseung Craft is also called 'Noyeokgae' in pure Korean. Jiseung craft originated from the Joseon Dynasty, when paper was scarce, when scholars cut and twisted the paper from books they had finished studying to make various objects. When supplies were scarce, paper crafts were used as luxury household items of the upper class at the time.
I felt very sorry that such unique artworks were stuffed as relics in the museum, and I wanted to bring them into everyday life by breathing new life into them as jewelry. And, this desire naturally led to the production of Jiseung Jewelry, and I wanted to expand the Jiseung craft technique, which was mainly used for producing traditional crafts, into the area of jewelries and ornaments, breaking the existing stereotyped framework and suggesting a new way of expressing Hanji and Jiseung craft.
My Jiseung jewelry is completed after a series of processes of making threads from Hanji and continuously connecting and weaving the paper. I rub the Hanji cut into thin, long pieces with my thumb and index finger to make a single string, and then twist two single strings to make a double string. I weave the shapes by intersecting the single string as the warp and the double string as the weft. Once the specific shape is formed, I coat it with thin glutinous rice paste 2-3 times to finish it.
From the main material to the finishing material, the repetitive act of continuously connecting and weaving with materials from nature without cutting them immediately brings me into a calm and natural state. As if I have become one with nature...
Jiseung work is a tool that awakens the nature within me and is a time of meditation. The desire to constantly make something boiling inside me concrete, to see something of myself blossoming naturally at my fingertips, always draws me to work, and I feel a pleasant and interesting feeling as if I face myself in me through a concrete object that is finally revealed after a long period of work. In other words, work is an act of meeting myself. And Hanji is a tool, a challenge, and a subject of enjoyable exploration to express myself more richly. In the future, I want to experiment more with Jiseung Jewelry, and I want to go beyond inheriting traditional techniques and complete my own skills and voice as an artist.
Artist bio:
I spent my childhood in a house decorated with old furniture and antiques collected by my parents. My father, who was an interpreter, was interested in Korean tradition, so he decorated the house in a traditional style, and invited foreign guests to give them a Korean atmosphere. I didn't know at the time, but I was unknowingly influenced by the surrounding environment and naturally became interested in traditional crafts.
I majored in French language and literature at Sookmyung Women's University, but I couldn't give up my dream of painting after graduation, so I learned painting to go to a graduate school of art, but I turned to a web designer, which is a job that pops up at that time, and worked as a web designer for five years. I felt limitations and bored with the design that had to be implemented only on a monitor, and I became interested in crafts that could work with my hands feeling the physical properties. So I majored in metal and jewelry design at Kookmin University's Graduate School of Techno Design.
The characteristic of my work is that I make jewelries and objets using a traditional Korean craft technique called 'Jiseung craft' with 'Hanji' as the main material. Jiseung Jewelry shows the characteristics of Jiseung craft technique with distinct vertical lines and presents a simple yet unique feel and texture. And most of all, because it is lightweight, various designs that were hesitant due to its weight could be applied to jewelry, and even though it is a contemporary Jewelry, it would be fun to present people with the unexpected charms that was made with traditional Korean craft techniques. Above all, I was very interested in the characteristics of materials and the attractiveness of techniques, so I wanted to continue to experiment more broadly with creative try through Jiseung Jewelry. And, this desire naturally led me to the world of contemporary Jewellery, where the artist's individuality and creativity can be expressed to their heart's content. I am very curious and excited about where my Jiseung work will lead me in the future. I want to swim freely in the wide ocean of art beyond jewelry and crafts with my Jiseung work.
