The deadline has already passed, but the exhibit of the jeogori entries will be held September 18 – November 4 2009. This would be a great opportunity to see re-interpretations of the jeogori. I’d go if I was in Korea (why are all the cool events going on when I’m NOT in Korea??).
One project that I’ve been hemming and hawing over is the windchimes. Not sure whether to make more or just a few, like a limited deal. They’re not totally finished there’s a few things I need to make and add to them. Such as the charms. The pattern needs some tweaking I think.
Not all of the insides would be the same fabric. The fish bell has a creamy white with a small all-over pattern. Anyhoo, this is one of my mad projects going on at my desk.
I’m feeling a little pressure here. This week I’ve gotten nothing done for my business. *Heavy sigh*
Just been feeling too worn out to do anything. Yesterday during the kids’ quiet time I was forced to nap when my eyes kept closing on me at the computer. I didn’t wake up ’till 5PM! The kids were wondering what was going on, waiting in their rooms to be released.
Today I went to the eye doctor for a glaucoma test. The results? Well, she’s referring me to a specialist. So there’s no definite answers yet….I have a whole month to wonder. Getting glaucoma never crossed my mind. ‘Till now. One of the joys of not knowing your family history.
Yes, much on my mind, lots to do, resulting in no time to do leisure blogging. I’m falling so behind on this. Really now, I know I can do better than this!
Much going on here behind the scenes, just now had some time to do some catch-up. I had set out with the goal to start up my on-line business in August. So far things are moving along. During April through May I wasn’t able to do much because the family kept getting sick. But as soon as things got back to normal I got back to plugging away at my business.
I can’t tell you how excited and nervous I was when I applied for a business license via the Internet. I’m legit! And I also got an EIN (Employee ID Number) through the Department of Revenue as well. That was just as nerve wracking. Much of my time had been taken up researching business banking and third party merchant payment systems. I’ve heard that credit unions have lower fees and better services than the big-wig banks so I’m considering the local credit union. For a brief moment I seriously considered just using my Paypal merchant account as my business account, but there are some limitations with that. I’ve not seen any way to give proof that my account is a real business to businesses should I want to do wholesale. Wholesalers usually require bank name and account along with business ID. I believe. Plus there’s the aspect of when I’ll need to do business purchases. I know Paypal offers their credit card, but I don’t want any tie-ups if for some reason the Paypal site is super busy and my card can’t go through. (There was one person on Etsy who mentioned she had this problem and her card was charged multiple times) It just seems more official if I have a physical bank to do my business. However, after saying all that, should I find that the fees are too much and too high, and the minimum balance is unrealistic for me at this time I will just revert to using Paypal, or whatever payment system I decide to go with. Which leads me to the other thing I’ve been looking into.
I’ve come across the three main e-commerce third party payment systems; Paypal, Google Checkout, and Amazon Checkout. I have a Paypal account already. But I’m wondering if either Amazon or Google’s would be better. The fees are about the same. Each have their pros and cons. Paypal is widely used. It also includes easy steps for shipping. It’s set-up within Paypal. I’m not sure if Google has that. From what I’ve read so far it sounds like it doesn’t. Not sure. And well, Amazon has the millions of account holders already on Amazon in it’s favor. I might have to set up accounts in each to find out the details. Sigh. There are others, I just can’t find them. I recall coming across one some time ago. Wish I bookmarked it.
There’s also the various venues for selling on. I’ve been leaning heavily towards Artfire. For a verified account it’s 12 bucks a month. For now. The regular price is said to be 20 bucks. Not sure how long they’ll be holding it at 12 bucks. Of course there’s Etsy, but it’s gotten so large….Apparently only Paypal is inter-grated with them, and they refuse to add any others.
My current project, that’s still in prototype stage, is coming along. I’m pleased with how it’s turning out. Of course there’s still a step or two that needs to be added/altered. But more on that when I reveal the finished product! Then I’ll figure-out how to step-up the production. O boy. I’m also contemplating the next item to add to my products. There’s a long list.
Today was a good day for mail. 
I got my first magazine subscription through Fujisan. It’s a children’s boutique sewing/pattern book called Cucito. Cuuute patterns. The other exciting bit of mail is receiving the paper in the mail confirming my tax ID. (Shaking hands all-around) Yippeee!
Ta-daaa! Here’s my very first hanji project. (As mentioned in previous posts) I finally got around to posting pictures! This is usually the beginner level for starting into hanji. The tray was already cut and assembled, and the hanji paper already cut to size, and the papercut design already cut out. All we did was paste the paper on. Very basic.
I had started off not getting aggressive enough and crease the paper into all the cracks and corners. Then I realized as I watched the instructors that you do not need to be so gentle with the paper (I forgot hanji is very strong and durable) and to go ahead and use your finger nails to get the paper around every edge and into corners.
Idealy the paper is to be squared up with the corners, not creeping up the sides. But this was a kit so squares weren’t perfect squares. Plus, this gave some fugging room for beginners.
The materials used are:
As per what the instructor told me, you prepare the glue by boiling the flour and water until it’s a nice pasty glue consistency. NOT TOO THICK! Real simple! Lots of crafters have done that before. Right?
Directions:
*As you’re pasting each piece of paper on it’s okay to brush your paste over it to smooth it out. Helps it stick and get the air bubbles out. Also, as you’re gluing you’ll be gathering paper fibers on your brush so you’ll want to clean your brush off now and then so not to get any wandering paper fibers where you don’t want them!
It was a fun and easy project. Now I have some idea how to do the kit I had bought in Korea! It doesn’t seem so daunting anymore! Hope this was helpful and interesting.
I know I mentioned that I’d take and post pictures of the tray I made at the hanji workshop I went to about a week(?) ago but….I just got pictures of it yesterday but haven’t had time to load them up yet. They’re coming! Honest! When the kids are doing quiet time I’ll squeeze time in to update. Really. Truly.
I’ve been “sketching” in photoshop. First time to try sketching that way. I’ve noticed that I tend to tighten up and try to perfect my sketching when I do it in photoshop. I’m not just letting ideas flow out of my head. I end up trying to come up with something to draw as my sketch! Although that’s not the aim of sketching in photoshop I do like it. It saves me time from trying to scan my image in (especially since the scanner is currently not hooked up to the computer). I’m still learning how to use scanned sketches in computer work, and also I’m trying to figure out how to scan in large pieces of art. My scanner isn’t that big, the scanning surface is about 8 x 11 “.
As for which method to do my artwork in, I’m still torn between traditional or computer. I enjoy traditional because it’s so hands-on. However, should I want to put them on the web, such as my shop, I have no idea how to convert it to images to put on the computer. Do I have to take them to a professional photographer to get them on disk? Does Kinko scan artwork and put them on disk? Hmmmm….
For Mother’s Day Yobo and I went and saw Enchanting China in Bellevue yesterday evening. I’ve been wanting to see some traditional Asian cultural show for a while. I missed out on one other Chinese dance show in Seattle a few months back so when I saw EC I grabbed the chance. I didn’t know anything about the group or the people sponsoring. I don’t even know who the highlighted performers are. (Talk about going in unprepared) But I’ve enjoyed enjoyed Chinese dance and song in their movies so I thought it would be a great experience to see it live.
As with most Asian cultural events, that aren’t big names, there were some quarks. Such as people totally confused on where to sit because the tickets didn’t match up with the theater sitting arrangement. One couple kept saying it was open sitting but not everyone knew this – if this was the case – and were asking where such and such aisle was. This may have added to the delayed time to start. A disappointment with the announcers was that the Chinese wasn’t translated to English. And the stage hand and ticket people were probably all volunteers because the stage management wasn’t quite professional. Heh. But then, the tickets were only $25 each so it’s not bad. Plus the money goes towards the Komen Cure (breast cancer).
I was expecting more diverse traditional dancing from various parts of China but there were probably only 4 or 5, that I can recall. Some dances were very sensual. I could easily see India’s dance and middle east influence. This is assuming they were contemporary dances. Maybe they’re traditional. I don’t know. But learning about the history of them would have been nice.
There is one performer that I came away very impressed with. Bo Li played an instrument called morin khuur. The morin khuur, or Horse Fiddle, is a string instrument from Mongolia. In a way it kind of sounds like a cello, and yet different. It has quite a haunting sound. I looked it up and the mythology of its origin is very interesting to. It feeds the imagination. In fact I bet it’s the instrument used in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon movie. I’ll have to dig out my soundtrack. After Bo Li played two “traditional” pieces, he did an improve. His fingers flew and did an amazing job. I would not doubt if he play the cello or base.
Below is an example of what the Murin khuur sounds like.
Wow. Talk about falling behind on posting. Things have been pretty sick around here. Literally sick. Both kids have been going through many many forms of illnesses. Thus no time or energy to do anything remotely creative unfortunately. Soooo terribly bummed. I have a time line of getting my shop/business up by the end of August but I’ve not been able to do much for the past month.
I’m needing some creative booster, some motivational inspiration! So while cruising for inspiration I remembered about gas forms out in space. So very beautiful. I could look at those for a very long time. Just amazing.
I finally got to attend a hanji workshop! I signed up a few weeks ago when I stumbled across a posting about art workshops. It was the same one that I was too late for the other time.
The two teachers were an elderly husband and wife duo. Their English was pretty good, not perfect, but hey, it’s much better than my Korean. They’ve been teaching hanji for a while I believe, there wasn’t any formal introduction or lengthy explaination of who they were and how they got into doing the craft.
There was a short one page history or background on hanji, nothing too indepth. And incomplete directions for doing the project. I do believe the workshop was good but there was room for improvements. Such as there were no introduction of who they were, no links or additional resources listed should one desire to find more information, and the description of each material listed was written down. I think these would be good to encourage further learning and practice of hanji craft.
But, I wrote down notes and asked questions, such as what was the glue paste made out of, what is the ratio mix of the polyurathane and water, where do they get their materials etc. etc. Hands-on classes are great for me because I learn through doing the best. If someone was to just give me verbal directions with no visual I’m usually lost. Unless the visual is very clear. Same with written. (One reason I really like Japanese craft books!)
I really enjoyed the little tray I made, the steps are pretty easy. I just need to learn how to make the form from scratch! (The little projects were kits so the trays were already cut and put together. We just glued the paper on.) This is where a book – in English! – would be really handy. I might just have to settle for one in Korean. I’ll have to make a visit to one of my favorite bojagi/hanji shops via the web.
It’s too late and dark to get great photos of my little tray so I’ll do it tomorrow.
I’ve been messing around with the header trying to get my banner to fit. So, if there’s a bit of wonkiness for the next few days, weeks, months it’s me. For some reason I can’t have the header expand and adjust to my header size. Not liking that ’cause now it leaves a great big gap at the bottom. Not sure what to do now.
Maybe I should go sketch. Even though computers have done a lot of great things for being creative, there’s still nothing quite as nice as just picking up a piece of paper and a pencil.
