Taking Our Chop One Step Further

Remember the chop that our friend Barbara brought back from Korea for us? My clever and talented niece, Claudette, turned that design into an embroidered patch with her super sewing machine. Now Kat and I can have something fun to wear at classes and sales.

Speaking of classes and sales, they're coming up. Check the website for information.

Frame it Up

I picked up some cheap, unfinished wood picture frames at Ikea last week, figuring this might be a good project for (what else?) hanji paper. I was right.

I wanted to use a new sheet of hanji paper, one with variegated colors. The paper is pretty thin, so I first added a solid-color paper layer just to cover the frame so the wood grain of the frame wouldn't show through the colorful paper. The traditional paste is just flour and water.

You can see the fibers of the paper in this first layer of paper.

Once the first layer was done, I added paste to the colorful paper and wrapped that around the frame, covering both the front and the back.

To dress it up, I cut a Korean word (joy) to add to one corner.

Not bad for a $1 frame!

Experimenting With a New Little Light

At our work day on Saturday, Kat experimented with the best way to make little votive candle covers -- like a lampshade for a tiny candle. She started with a sheet of adhesive styrene, and added cut designs to the adhesive side of the translucent styrene. On top of the design, Kat added a piece of light hanji paper, so the design was sandwiched between the plastic and the paper. She formed this into a ring that would circle the candle.

We opted for battery tea lights (safety first!) vs. candles, and Kat is trying different adhesives to connect the paper ring, so we're sure they'll stay connected.

These turned out beautifully. By the end of the day, Kat had a line-up of various sizes and colors, all lovely. What a fun project! Wouldn't these make a fun project to offer at one of our classes?

Early Holidays

Kat got an order to make holiday ornaments for a senior center, and she recently finished them all, a shining example of what we call "fusion hanji," using our traditional mulberry paper and techniques with a nontraditional design.

The results, as usual, were spectacular. Those seniors will get quite a treat this holiday season.

Still in the holiday mood, Kat added these snow globes to our inventory. We've got some holiday sales coming up in the fall, so it's never too early to get a good start.

Happy holidays!