Traditional Korean Handicrafts

In the past 6 months I have taken several classes in the traditional Korean handicrafts.  It is a great way to learn about the Korean culture and gain a greater appreciation for the work required to be a master craftsman.  At the end of each class, I get to take home a small piece of art, handcrafted by me, which is always pale in comparison to the master's work.  It's all about the experience though, not the finished product.

Our first lesson was making Nokcheongja.  Nokcheongja is a specific Korean pottery made with a greenish celadon glaze.  Celadon was considered the premier luxury porcelain for the royals and nobles during the Koryo dynasty (918-1392), but was not available to the commoners.  Nokcheongja was developed to be the commoner's version of celadon.  It is made with coarser clay and fired with an ash-based glaze.  It is inspired by the celadon style, but much more practical in design and manufacturing process.  What makes Nokcheongja even more special, is that it was developed in Incheon, not far from where we live, albeit 1100 years ago.

Real Celadon pottery at the National Museum of Korea

 

Nokcheongja pottery made by a local craftsman in Incheon.

 The kids got a chance to make bowls when we found this booth at a festival. 

 

The man's daughter delivered them to us 2 months later, glazed and fired.

 My class was taken at a pottery studio.  It was 4 weeks long and I made a vase and a bowl in that time.

My class with Master Kim and his wife.

 Week one was making the vase on the wheel.

We did not do the glazing ourselves.  When I asked about it, she said it was not painted on, but rather dipped in the glaze using these special tongs.  She showed us on a plate how the flatter tongs worked.  She said that glazing took huge forearm strength to swish it around in the glaze while gripping the pottery with the tongs.  

  Week two was smoothing it out and creating the lip in the bottom of the vase.

 Week three we made our bowls.  More of a bowl for fruit on the table, less of a cereal bowl.

Week four we smoothed the sides of our bowls and created the smooth surface on the bottom.

The finished products.

My second handicraft lesson was in calligraphy. We learned how you can use calligraphy to make the words convey emotion even if you can't read the language the word was written in.  This was very helpful to me in learning the stylized fonts used to write the Hangeul letters. (Google Translate doesn't work on stylized fonts.)  This was a one-day class and I walked away with a framed card on which I had written 'You're the best!' in Korean and signed my name in Hangeul below. 

Learning about the different brushes used for calligraphy

Practice time.

Mine is in the top row, middle column.

My calligraphy class, each of us holding our finished work.

My third handicraft lesson was painting silk scarves.  The class was held in a shop that sells these amazingly beautiful hand painted silk scarves, jackets, pillow cases, etc.  Everything was just breathtaking. 

We learned about the plants used to produce the different color dyes: gallnut, sappanwood, lac, and gardenia seeds. 

We started with plain white silk scarves.  We soaked them in tannin and then scrunched them up and poured dye over them in small spots.  Then we let them rest in the dish for awhile, to absorb the dye.

 

After we had a short break, sipping marigold flower tea and eating roasted sweet potatoes, we washed out the scarves and hung them out to dry in the sun.

Then the lady ironed them for us and showed us different ways to tie them.

I gave the silk scarf I made in class to my mother-in-law for Christmas.  I think she looks stunning wearing it, don't you?  I'm glad she knew how to tie it properly, since I had already forgotten.

The most recent handicraft lesson was one the kids and I did together.  It was how to make inlaid mother-of-pearl key chains.  This requires a lot of patience and quite a bit of creativity to make something special.  We had seen mother-of-pearl boxes at the National Museum of Korea and they are gorgeous!!!  Our key chains were less than spectacular, but we still had fun making them. 

small inlaid box at the National Museum of Korea

gorgeous inlaid chest at the National Museum of Korea

easy illustrated instructions

broken shells in the bowl and glue to keep them in place on the key chain

 I'm currently looking for my next cultural experience learning traditional Korean handicrafts.  I'm not sure what will turn up next.  If it's awesome, I'll be sure to share it with you all.