Celebrating Korean Hanji paper in New York City with "Re:visioning Hanji"

It seems that Korean Hanji paper has been in the spotlight these last few weeks! After an interesting Festival held in Sydney, Australia, organized to celebrate and promote this amazing material, Hanji is once again the heart of a promotional event outside of Korea. Would 2016 be the Year of Hanji? I surely hope so!

This time, Hanji paper is the star of a special exhibition in New York City! Hanji artworks by contemporary artists Ran Hwang and Aimee Lee will be presented in "Re:visioning HANJI", from February 24, to March 31, 2016.

A special Hanji making seminar and hands-on workshop, led by Aimee Lee, is also organized on March 12 and 13 (Sat and Sun), to give visitors the occasion to experiment the paper-making process.

The exhibition is held in Gallery Korea at the Korean Cultural Center NY, at 460 Park Avenue (6th Floor) in New York City, NY, USA.

You can read the complete press release here: 
http://mb.cision.com/Main/13503/9902804/469801.pdf 

For more details, you can also refer to the Korean Cultural Center website :

http://www.koreanculture.org

A New Hanji Festival... outside of Korea!

I was thrilled to discover, thanks to my dear friend and fellow artist Jan Coveney from Hanji Happenings, that a brand-new Korean Hanji paper Festival has been organized in her beautiful homeland : Australia!

Organized by the Korean Cultural Center in Sydney, the K-Paper (Hanji) Culture Festival will be held from February 15 to February 29, 2016 at the Korean Cultural Center Australia.

The program of this 2-week festival includes workshops, an exhibition, a market, and a fashion show.

It is very exciting that Hanji is being promoted overseas, and that consequently more and more craft and art lovers will discover the beauties of this material, along with the endless possibilities it offers.

For more information on this festival : http://koreanculture.org.au/hanjifestival

Here are some articles on the event :

Hanji culture festival opens in Sydney (YonHap News Agency) :
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/news/2016/02/16/0200000000AEN20160216003500315.html

Beauty of "K-Paper (Hanji)" to resonate with Australians (SBS) :
http://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/korean/en/content/beauty-k-paperhanji-resonate-australians

Hanji Festival Opens at the Korean Cultural Center Sydney (HelloAsia) :
http://www.helloasia.com.au/news/hanji-festival-opens-at-the-korean-cultural-centre-sydney/

Thank you for your support!

Today we have reached nice milestones that I would like to share with you!

HanjiNaty has now more than 1,500 followers on Pinterest!!
Are you a Pinner, yourself? You can find us here : https://www.pinterest.com/hanjinaty

On Etsy, I personally have now more than 1,000 followers! My shop, HanjiNaty, has over 1,300 admirers, too! That's simply amazing!

Thank you so much for your support!

Here are the other social media platforms where you can connect with me :

Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/HanjiNaty/
Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/hanjinaty/
Wanelo : https://wanelo.com/store/hanjinaty
Keep : https://keep.com/hanjinaty
Polyvore : http://hanjinaty.polyvore.com/

HanjiNaty featured on "The Chilly Dog" blog!

This week I was lucky to be featured on The Chilly Dog blog!

This fantastic blog, dedicated to crafts and creativity, has a lot to offer to crafting and art lovers : tutorials, interviews, link parties, tips and useful information.... make sure to bookmark this great Web resource!

You can read the article here :
http://www.thechillydog.com/2015/09/featured-artist-hanji-naty.html

Handmade Korea Fair - What an amazing experience!

The huge craft show HANDMADE KOREA FAIR was held in the Hall B of the COEX Complex in Gangnam, Seoul from July 23 to July 26, 2015.

HanjiNaty was there for the 4-day event! Here are a few pictures from the Fair :

 No need to say that I was very excited to be part of this amazing adventure! There were over 500 booths in the Fair, including mine.

All the items for sale in my booth were handcrafted by me. All my products is made with high-quality Hanji paper from Korea. 

My booth was filled with different types of items : hair accessories (hair pins, pony tail ties, etc.), jewelry (earrings, necklaces, and brooches), and home decor items (pen holders, coasters, magnets, and plates).

I was lucky to have a wonderful booth partner! My friend Seula was with me on Thursday and Friday, to welcome visitors, answer their questions and make sure communication was smooth with my Korean clients (as my Korean language skills are limited). She did an awesome job, thank you Seula!

For the last two days of the Fair, my beloved husband was there with me. As always he was unbelievably helpful as my booth partner, driver, motivator, translator and salesperson.

A lot of visitors took pictures of my booth, and picked up my business cards. I was pleased to see that some Korean bloggers wrote about my shop :
★ http://cafe.naver.com/handarty/7179
★ http://blog.naver.com/marananta199/220431325775
★ http://blog.naver.com/hsk2459/220431220450

Handmade Korea Fair.... in 10 days!

As I proudly announced in a previous blog post, I will be participating at the end of July in HANDMADE KOREA FAIR, a large craft show held in the COEX Convention & Exhibition Center in downtown Seoul!

For the longest time Handmade Korea Fair was a distant project, something exciting and a little scary for sure, but that was relatively far in time. Now when I look at my calendar I realize.... it's in 10 days!

Getting ready

For the last few weeks, I have spent most of my awake time crafting Hanji paper items, in order to get ready for this Craft show. I had an ambitious target of 1,600 items, but I have to admit that I will most likely not reach that number in time for the Fair!.... I am now revising my plan, and aiming for a total of 1,100 items.

If you were to visit my apartment in Iksan you would see that I literally took over the living room, that is now my Hanji workshop! There is paper everywhere, supplies and tools on every free surface, and bins of hardware, paintbrushes and cardboard scraps all around the house! I have to take the time here to thank my husband and our four cats for their amazing patience.

Now that time is running out, I will have to prioritize and be as strategic as possible with my time and energy. There are so many things I would like to be making, but I have to make choices!.... It is no easy task for me.


New products in the HanjiNaty booth

In my booth at the Fair I want to make sure to offer an interesting selection of accessories and home decor items, and I especially want to focus on my patchwork collection. I have been crafting new square coasters (with ledge) to complement the pen holders and round coasters I am already offering to my customers.

I am also working on different sizes of hair pins, as my Korean customers often request smaller pins that would fit their style better. At the Fair people will now have the choice between 5 sizes of hair pins, from mini (3 cm) to jumbo (10 cm).


Where to find me

Handmade Korea Fair will be held in the B Hall of COEX, from July 23 (Thu) to July 25 (Sun). The Fair will be open to the public from 10am to 7 pm on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and from 10am to 6pm on Sunday. The entrance fee is 10,000won.

Here is a map of the Fair. My booth is marked in blue (number A18) :

How to get to COEX : http://www.coex.co.kr/eng/visitors/directions-map-2

See you there!

Handmade Korea Fair 2015 ~ We will be there!

I remember reading this saying a few months ago : "If your dreams don't scare you, they aren't big enough." After thinking about it for a while, I can now say that this sentence has motivated my decision to take a leap of faith and sign-up for one of the largest craft shows in Korea!

HANDMADE KOREA FAIR is a huge craft show, dedicated to handmade arts and crafts. It is held in the B Hall of COEX, the International Convention & Expo Center in Seoul. 

Last year, about 60,000 visitors visited the Fair during the four days of the event! That's pretty impressive!

The 5th edition will be held from July 23 to July 26, 2015... and we will be there!

I have decided to dive right in and sign up for this amazing event! HanjiNaty will have a kiosk for the 4-day event, and you are more than welcome to visit us if you happen to be in the South Korean capital city!

I will keep you posted with the latest developments and the progress of my preparation for the Fair. It will surely a challenging summer, but I am ready to work hard to reach my goal!

Stay tuned for more stories!

In the meantime, you can find more information regarding this event here :

Official website : http://www.handmadekorea.co.kr/

Facebook page : https://www.facebook.com/Handmadekorea