Treasury on Etsy

I opened my etsy shop about a year and half ago but only recently did I find out more about this treasury thing. Initially I thought people make treasury for their pleasure and to show others what they like on etsy. And then I realised that you can actually help other shops to promote their work by making treasury. But little did I know that what makes the front page of etsy is treasuries each individuals make. So I had a go at curating some of my favourite work but my first one was ok-ish. Last night I tried my second treasury which took a long time choosing and organising (or should I say curating). It was fun and really liked some of the findings. So here is my second treasury on etsy. I called it 'Asia Calling'.

Brighton and Hove Artist Open House May 2014

I'll be participating in May 2014 Brighton and Hove Artist Open House. This festival is on between Sat 3 May - Sun 25 May this year. My Hanji work will be at Villa LVI, 56 Payne Avenue, Hove BN3 5HD. Opening Hours 11am - 5pm.

Photographing My Hanji Work

Here's my latest attempt to photograph some of my latest cards. I do need to practice!

All Things Paper

I was pleasantly surprised recently when Ann Martin, the writer of the fantastic blog All Things Paper contacted me to say she would like to feature my work on her blog through my etsy shop. She said she looked at my work after one of her readers Rebeca recommended my Hanji work to her, and she enjoyed seeing my Hanji work and asked me several questions about it.

Click here for Ann's post about my Hanji work

I was even more pleased when I finally read Ann's post about me. She absolutely perfected my Hanji craft and researched thoroughly. After this, I was definitely positively encouraged and I'm so grateful to Rebeca for contacting Ann about my work. If you want to follow Ann's blog click here. 

Flying Beads to Australia

I recently had a very nice surprise on my Etsy shop from someone living in Australia. She liked my beads and especially she likes the Korean alphabet called Hangul. She enquired if I could make some beads using lots of Hangul beads and looking very earthy. I was thrilled at this enquiry and quickly emailed back. Of course, yes please!

Initially I thought "That would be easy. I just needed to put the beads she asked for together". I'm not very familiar with custom orders and I pretty much make what I like normally. So without knowing what custom order involves truly, I agreed to her request.

After making the beads that were needed, I tried to put them together to the description. It wasn't a piece of cake as I originally thought it was going to be. I kept putting the beads together to my liking and then thought "Is this what she asked for?" "Would she like them a bit more this way or that?" After several trials of different designs I sent a few photos to the customer and to my satisfaction she LOVED them.

So here they are, new beads featuring Korean Hangul, flying to Australia. To show my thanks, I included a little something to go in. Hope they deliver a nice smile on her face and how happy that made me making what she asked for. Thank you!

Update for the 1970s Danish Coffee Table

I had this lovely message from someone who received the danish coffee table as a Christmas gift recently. I'm so happy thinking about the table being loved in its new home. That made my day! Thank you for sharing this with me. (I've removed the names).

"This message is for Moon Munson. I just wanted you to know that they have given me your coffee table for a Christmas present and I am absolutely thrilled with it. I have attached a couple of photographs so that you can see how it looks in it's 'new home'. It's perfect! It will be well loved and looked after. Best wishes for 2014. From____x"

Chrysanthemum tea caddy goes to Penthouse

One of my friends has moved to a new place last month. Their new place is on the same street as their old house which is very handy when moving and I was invited there for a drink one evening. Having become close friends fairly recently I wanted to give a little present for the new place, something small enough to say 'wish you happiness in a new home' and something Korean as she is very interested in learning Korean culture and food. I thought this tea caddy would be just perfect in their lovely penthouse with a great view. 

It's got bright red paper lining inside as seen in this photo ,believed to fight off any evil spirits in Korean culture (or Chinese for that matter).

I wrapped it in a white Bojagi which is a traditional Korean fabric wrapping. I should have taken a photograph of it but as always I was in a rush to go and didn't have a chance to do it. I also should have taken photographs of this tea caddy in their beautiful setting but never mind. One day perhaps! 

Christmas Present

This is a hamper basket I made for my family to give Christmas gifts in. I love the colour combination of this hamper - dark chocolaty brown inside with olive green with silver patterns out.

The design itself didn't take too long because I already had in mind what shape I wanted. Although cutting of the 5mm thick card board wasn't easy, especially cutting the holes out for the handles was really tricky. 

But I'm happy with the result. 

'papertree' logo in Korean on the back!

Some old newspaper cuttings to use as a filler. 

Viola! I think I need to buy a few more things to go in. To wrap it up, I'm going to make Bojagi, Korean fabric wrapping sheet so it can be used again and again. 

Artist Open House

Tomorrow is the last day of Brighton & Hove Artist Open House for Christmas. This was my third time to exhibit as a part of Villa LVI and I have throughly enjoyed it. 

This book tree by Rebeca Martin was a very popular feature at the Open House. Lots of people took photos. The book at the top of the tree is apparently exactly 100 years old, printed in 1913.

 Recycled mirror on Hanji frame with hand made tiles.

 Hand paper cut ducks for ever lasting love.

More hand paper cut traditional Korean pattern to bring happiness and love to you. 

My new Hanji cards. With hand made fans on the left and reused child's puzzle pieces on the right. 

Houses in a box. You can pick and choose any colour you like or as many as you like as long as they fit in the Hanji box.

Many thanks to all of you who have come to see my Hanji art at the Open House. I'm very grateful to have all your support in any form whether it be by purchasing, giving me new ideas through talking to me or enjoying a closer look at my art with interests and care. I've got one more day to go tomorrow at 56 Payne Avenue Hove. I'll enjoy my last day tomorrow whatever happens thanks to my other artists friends who are part of Villa LVI for their greatest friendship and support to each other. See you all tomorrow!

1970s Danish Coffee Table

This is my biggest project so far. I regenerated this table last April for the Brighton and Hove Artist May Open House.

I found this table unwanted by my neighbour covered with lots of blueish water-colour paint as if a child had had a go at decorating it. I gave it a good clean and lots of sanding down to get rid of that blue paint. I used fine sand-paper instead of the sanding machine which took, what seemed like, forever and there was plenty of dust from the old wood created by this sanding action (now I know what it's like working with wood). 

This is what the table looked like after first layer of white Hanji paper. Initially this lovely Hangul paper was my first choice for the top of this beautiful 1970s Danish coffee table. Once the paper was glued, however, the wood stain from the top of the table kept coming through this light Hangul paper. In the end I gave up and had to change the plan after about 4 layers of paper on top trying to cover the stain. 

But all is not lost. After several attempts of choosing paper I finally found this gorgeous black and gold Chrysanthemum Hanji paper. The bottom part of the table especially required lots of patience as each baton (or whatever those wooden bits are called) was painstakingly decoupaged with this blackness of gorgeous eastern flowers. When I finished the final baton, I was thrilled. Very opulent! Now I go around looking for the next project - in fact I have found a couple of chairs that look like 60s design. I'm so looking forward to changing these up soon. 

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.