Stay sunny summer!

I've been really busy working on my new online shop with my husband who is my business partner. My daughter has been very patient with me and now we would like to do some fun things together. So stay sunny summer!

We watched the film Cool Running last night - what a fantastic film for the whole family to watch together. We were all touched by it and especially my 6 year old daughter after hearing so much about Jamaica, Usain Bolt, Johan Blake and others during the Olympic games, she loved the film. Jimmy Cliff's song is just what we need right now. It's gonna be a bright, bright, sun shiny day!

Japanese Book Punch

A bad worker blames his tools they say however you can't say enough how good tools save your day. This hole punch is called Japanese book punch/hole punch/screw punch, and it will save your day in most paper projects. Japanese book punch is particularly useful in making holes anywhere in a project whereas an ordinary hole punch only reaches to the edges of the paper. I've been looking for something like this for a while and this one turns out to be reasonable at £22.99 (www.joannasheen.com) and does the job quite well. The only drawback is although it claims to make holes through multiple layers of paper and leather but the results were not to my satisfaction (they do go through but not very easily). There are some cheaper versions online as well and in my opinion they are not really worth the money they ask for.  More expensive ones are also available (some well over £100 once you've paid for all the different size nozzles) which I haven't tried yet. And I would love to compare the two, however, until then I'm quite happy with my recent purchase for what I'm doing. 

My Latest Project

I proudly present my new baby, a  6-tier drawers with curved top. I used 3mm press board to make the base and covered with Korean Hanji paper to decorate it as well as hand paper cut patterns of butterfly and flowers and then finished it with satin varnish.

Butterfly and flowers.

 This pattern alone took me over 4 hours to cut.

 Close-up shot.

 To show how big the drawers are, I put my glasses next to it.

Hanji paper used inside is a print of chrysanthemum by one of the Korean calligrapher's ink and wash painting.

I'm Onto Something

I've been busy paper cutting for my new project. After several hours of pain and blisters on my fingers, I finally present my yet unfinished paper cut patterns for my new project. You can find out more later here.

 Cut out pieces of Hanji paper - perhaps I could use this for something. I'll have to think about that.

This is a finished result, which I'm quite pleased about.

Before I started!

My Shiny Rings

My new rings - shiny!
Available at www.moonshanji.etsy.com

What do you do with your boxes?

Dream Paper! Han-ji (Korean paper)

This video I found on youtube explains what Hanji and Hanji craft are.

Brighton Craft Fair

I've been so busy preparing for Brighton Craft Fair last sat 5th May at Friend's Meeting House in Brighton.

Before the fair, I thought I had enough to show at the fair but when I took my precious things out to display them, I realised that wasn't the case. There is never enough! I should have started thinking about this fair much earlier on. But hey ho! Such is life. You live and learn. I'll be better prepared next time hopefully. On a positive note though I'm really pleased how many of my new design for the rings have come out. My new darlings!

Here are some photos of my practice display at home.

Oops! A camera shake.

And here are some scenes from the fair. 

My daughter wanted to help me with the display and she did a very good job there!

A very good experience for any craft makers.

Paper Bead Pendant

Paper bead pendant made of Korean Hanji paper. 

Each bead is painstakingly made by rolling a long strip of Hanji paper and glued and glazed a few times. And then the beads are hanging from waxed cotton cord with some silver plated findings. I love the colour combination on this.

Recycled cardboard earrings anyone?

Like recycling? In my 6 year daughter's words, 'I don't like it. I love it'. I find recycling and reusing paper quite satisfying. Some of my jewellery pieces are made of recycled cardboard or food packaging that is about to be thrown into the paper recycling box. And here's how.

Materials

Cutting board

Pencil 

Scissors or craft knife

Cardboard 

Hanji paper (or any mulberry paper of your choice but not too thick)

Glue (What I use is for Hanji craft but thinly watered down PVA glue might do the job) I'll talk about the glue in detail in a different post. 

Earring findings of your choice (a pair of eye pins and ear wires)

1. Draw some shapes such as circles, hearts or stars on a piece of cardboard. You need 4 of the same shapes for a pair of earrings. 
2. Cut them out. Glue 2 of them together with an eye pin in the middle firmly attached using hot glue gun or super glue. Do the same with the other 2. 
3. Wrap them with the paper of your choice (Korean Hanji paper in my case) getting rid of all the air bubbles between Hanjii paper and the cardboard. Let them dry completely (ideally overnight).
4. Once dry, varnish them to protect from water and to give the shiny look. Wood varnish, or any kind of craft varnish is fine. 
5. Put the ear wires on and show off your new creation. 

Voila! Mine looks like this. 

Photographs by Paul Munson

Cup of Tea

    Some days you want to talk a lot, and other days you just want to relax with a cup of tea!

The tray here is made by me.

Photographs by Paul Munson

Hanji Craft

I suppose many of you may not be familiar with Hanji craft let alone Hanji paper.
Hanji is Korean traditional paper made from the inner bark of the Mulberry tree and it is used for many things including paintings, scrolls, books as well as household items. Using this beautiful Korean Hanji paper, I make personal items such as jewellery, jewellery boxes, vanity boxes and pocket mirrors, trays, fruit bowls, and small drawers. I use Korean traditional Hanji craft method which involves pasting many layers of Hanji paper onto a pre-framed objects.  For example, to make a jewellery box, I use thick pressed paper board to form the box shape and then paste layers of paper onto it. Some of them are decorated with cut out patterns of various symbols wishing health and good luck. All items I make can be functional or decorative.