this is another trip centered on natural dyeing. teacher conducted the weekend seminar in the town of 'Kong-gu', about an hour outside of Seoul. 'Kong-gu' is a nice town, full of artisans & beautiful people! there is a lovely museum in the village that exhibits many traditional items used throughout Korean history. i will have to contact my teacher to remember its name, then i will post it here.
it was a busy weekend as we dyed three colours; yellow (tumeric), purple (an insect casing, cochineal?) & a burnt orange (immature persimmon). as with the other posts on dyeing, these fun-filled days were a good couple of years ago, & very little English was spoken, so please bear with me as i pull my cerebral strings. i may have more detailed accounts which can be included someday, once i return to Canada, where my belongings & memories are in storage.
here's a peep at the day's events...
First Colour ~ Yellow (Turmeric)
Straining
for the dye bath, the bark was brought to boil & simmered for some time, until teacher deemed it ready. i can not recall if there was a mordant used, but the cloth turned out beautifully rich, so i'm guessing yes... with alum.
Drippin'
it was then strained onto a piece of muslin, which sits atop of a round flat basket for support, to drip.
In March 2000, i began my studies with Yoo Hee-soon, an embroidery professor for Dong-guk Dae, a buddhist university in Seoul, South Korea. i can't say enough about her as she is one of the loveliest people i've ever met. she is always patient, & is willing to teach me anything i want to learn. she has taken me on a few expeditions to a temple on a mountain in An Seong (a town outside of the city) to teach me the art of dyeing with natural colours.
Many times that year, teacher had taken me along with a few other students to An Seong, a little village about an hour & a half outside of Seoul, to naturally colour silk & ramie. these photos were taken on one of those sojourns.
The mountain road
Usually, we take a bus to the bottom of the mountain & walk up to the temple, about 20 minutes. the climb is not too difficult, but it is envigorating.
The Buddhist temple
The stairs to the right are not as easy as they may seem. a full day running up & down is noticed tomorrow. they lead to the Buddha statue & a shrine behind him.
The pots you see in the front are 'kimchi' pots. Koreans marinate cabbage, or other vegetable, in these pots with red chilies, hot pepper paste et al for several days & these become side dishes to a main course of stew or rice dish.
from behind the Buddha
Taken in spring, the azaleas in full bloom, my teacher strolls past in her traditional Korean dress, the 'hanbok'.
i began studying Korean music in the spring of 2003 in the International Program at the National Center for Traditional Korean Performing Arts (NCTKPA). it was a basic introduction course. & then, i went in search of a teacher. i found my teacher, Song YoungSook, through a friend, & began studies of traditional court & sanjo music (solo instrumental music) immediately. court music is played with a different gayageum than in sanjo music, & it is written in chinese notation, something else i had to learn.
i also learned that the zither i had bought was not of very good quality, which i could tell by the poor sound it produced. very shortly after my studies began, i put in an order for a handmade gayageum. i met the man, Choi (pronounced Chae). he was of 3 generations, in Cholla-do, that created instruments of high quality. each instrument has it's own unique sound. my gayageum is beautifully rich & deep, & will only improve with play. mr. Choi offered me a choice of three gayageums that he had made the day i drove to his studio. i listened to each as he played them. as it turns out, i choose the very instrument he said he created with me in mind. we had met before this day, but how he determined the type of sound i would enjoy is beyond me. my gayageum is made of a piece of paulownia that he said was an old tree when cut down, & he's left it to cure for many years. the age of the wood plays a major role in the ultimate sound the instrument does & will create. &, of course, also affects its price.
the instrument itself is made of 12 twisted-silk strings, though you can find ones with many more (13,15,18,21 & 25) strings. the 25-stringed instrument can then play more modern, or western styled, music (chromatic vs. pentatonic). it is kept in tune by ensuring the tautness of each string from the tolgwae (tuning pegs), over each anjok (movable bridge, literally translated as "wild-goose foot") to the bottom of the instrument, where the strings are then covered, & inserted up through the holes to form a beautiful utilitarian knot.
the knot,
the anjok can then make smaller adjustments to the tuning. the instrument spans three octaves, the strings being D,G,A - D,E,G,A,B - D,E,G,A, though they are not exactly the same pitch as in western tuning.
the gayageum is made from a single piece paulownia wood on the front & chestnut on it's back. it dates around the 6th century when King Kasil built one based upon a Chinese instrument, zheng. 'gaya' is the name of an ancient Korean tribal country, & 'geum' means instrument (there is also the hyeongeum, haegeum, yonggeum, daegeum). at the top, the face is engraved with the words, 'pleasure pleasure', & they are inset with carved bone. the 12 silk strings represent the 12 months of the year. the decorative elements along its soundboard (on the back) too have significant meaning. the crescent moon, the sun & the centre opening representing the milky-way, spiritually link the avowed musician with the cosmos. its sound resonating between nature (as it is made of silk & wood, & played with a human touch) & the heavens.
once tuned, it is played with the right hand using a few movements of plucking (pizzicato) & flicking. whereas the left hand is used for varying vibrato, & can also change the pitch of the string. the sound is delicate & subtle, resounding with music from the heart like the voice.
this next video is not me, though once i practice a bit, i'll attempt a 'performance'. it is a good example of the right & left hand movements. gayageum sanjo (1:26)
a quick history... the gayageum was traditionally used as accompaniment, or in an orchestra, to perform at court for royalty. it wasn't until the 19th century that sanjo, or solo style, music came along. of course, today without a monarchy, sanjo is the preferred style of play. since there have been other schools of thought concerning its play, i'll continue with a more in-depth study at a latter date.
this next performance (6:09) is beautiful, an ensemble of three modern gayageums performing at a recital. it's only a link as the embedding code was disabled.
& one last performance... Hwang Byung-Ki (10:23)
more about Hwang ByungKi in a post about the schools of sanjo.
this bag is technically the first thing i've ever quilted, though i didn't know that was what we were going to do that day. my teacher had set up a workshop that i had agreed to, & this is what the day produced. the language barrier has always been a small thing between teacher & i. not that we've spoke of the heavens or politics, but we seem to understand each other in a visual, colourful way.
this hat was created on another workshop day. on both the bag & the hat, the decorations & knot are also hand made. i have another hat pattern cut & ready to be sewn. another ufo, it's been waiting for me since this day.
i'd like to take a brief moment, & tell you how wonderful my teacher is. she has devoted her life to her art, & loves to teach anyone willing to learn anything they ask, including an awesome pumpkin porridge, i'll share with you the next time i make it.
i'd like to thank you teacher for being so kind & patient with your boundless energy, & for sharing your art, your life.
these next close-up photos are the 4 panels of my folding screen. Shin, SaImDang (1504-1551) painted them during the Joseon dynasty. she became one of the most famous female artists in the 5,000 year-long Korean history. her work is known for the stylised subjects of insects, birds & other animals, plants & fruit which is referred to as chochungdo. She is also honoured & respected as her son, Yulgŏk, became a famous Confucian scholar. & she is considered to be the mother of modern Koreans. she lived with her parents at her family's Kangwon Province ancestral home, Ojukeon. her life consisted of caring for her husband & aging parents, raising seven children & artistic use of her education of Chinese classics, poetry, calligraphy & embroidery invested in by her father.
the photos are presented in the order i embroidered them. each colour used, is embroidered with 3 shades for a more natural feel. the thread is mostly hand-dyed silk with the stitches in long & short lengths. there are some french knots used for the eyes of the butterflies, strawberry seeds, & for other decorative embellishments.
i really enjoy this type of embroidery. especially in the quiet with the window ajar, listening to the breeze & the sound of silk on silk. left only with the form of the line & the beautifully coloured thread.
i'd like to get this blog rolling, so i thought i'd post a pic or 2 on some previous projects. i don't have any pics of some of the things i'm working on now. perhaps for my next post. below is my very first try at traditional Korean embroidery, known as jasu. i was very lucky to meet my teacher, Yoo HeeSoon, the second month i had arrived in Seoul, & began studying this beautiful art of embroidering silk on silk.
this next piece consumed the next year i was there, but it was 4 separate panels. these paintings are by a woman of the 16th century named, Shin Sa Im Dang. these pictures are not traditionally embroidered. my teacher sketched them, & i transfered the drawings onto the silk.
this link will take you to her Cockscomb print which is one of the pieces i've embroidered in the screen.
i have close up shots of each panel, but, dag nammit, they're not accessible on this computer. perhaps another time.
