KPop Academy Week 6: Korean Art.

Craft: Colour of Korea

Photo Credit: Pure Travel.

I can't believe how fast the past couple of weeks have been. We are already halfway through the KPop Academy. It has been an enjoyable experience that has exceeded my expectations. I have had the chance to experience Korea in a totally new way, and I am glad I was able to let you guys in on the fun we've been having. I hope you are enjoying reading about all the different aspects of Korea that I've been able to offer in the past few weeks.

On that note, I'll go on to tell you about our last session...

As per usual, I arrived at the Academy before 2pm. We headed into the hall which was already laid out for the Craft class. At 2pm, Last week's assignments were shown and then we were introduced to Kim Yu Jin who is a Jogakbo specialist. I don't know if I was the only one who noticed, but she had the same name as the Korean actress Eugene who was in 'Can we love' and a '100 year inheritance'. I thought that was an interesting fact :)

Anyways she went on to tell us a little about the Origin of the Jogakbo and a brief history. I understand that  

"Jogakbo generally refers to the Korean traditional patchwork and is an expression of the Korean women’s sense of beauty and creativity."

The art of making it is known as Gyubang Craft ~ 규방공예 which is also Boudoir handicraft in English. There are different variations of the craft ranging from materials used, colours and so on. It originated from Hanbok (Korean traditional Attire) making, the pieces that were leftover after making hanbok were creatively used by the women to make various things.

Jogakbo was used to make household decorations,wedding gifts and even a decorative cloth used as wrapping paper. There is a wrapping paper culture in Kora which dates back to the three kingdom period.In recent times however, Jogabo is even used to make purses, bags and like in our class to make accessories such as hairpins and Brooches.

She also mentioned the Obangsaek with 'Obang' meaning five directions and 'Saek' meaning colour. Koreans adapted to the order of nature and the hidden meaning behind it. They considered the colours of nature as providing law and order in their lives. Here is a picture below showing the colours. If you would like to know more, Google will provide as much information as you need.

Here's an instruction manual of how I made this. You will need The brooch Frame and base, Pieces of fabric, needle and thread, Hard paper, glue. Good luck!!

Kim, Elisa and I showing off our finished work. We styled it on our hair, you can see the colour popping out :)

The teacher was really helpful and nice, she went round the class to help us out if we were stuck. I ended up with a very funny patchwork and we all had a laugh about it. But in the end it looked nice when I completed the brooch.

After everyone completed their work, we took a couple of pictures and Kim and I did a mini-interview. The teacher told us about a class that was organised by the Korean Cultural Centre. It will be a Gyubang Craft workshop which will run for 10 weeks starting mid-may. The details are not available yet, however if you are in the London Area and would like to give it a go, keep an eye out on the centre's website for further details. 

http://www.kccuk.org.uk/welcome.do 

While we are at it, you can also browse through their website for other exiting things like Art/Fashion Exhibitions, Performances and Film Night. 

We headed over to YORI restaurant after the class. You can read about the post I did on that by clicking here.

See you on my next KPop Academy adventure where we will be learning two KPop Dances, A guy group and a girl group. It's a surprise ;).
love, 
meera