Now, I imagine nothing sounds more boring to our loyal readers than a museum dedicated entirely to the history and production of paper. And to tell the truth, the museum itself was a little blah, except for a brilliant children's educational hologram which featured a bunch of cute little anthropomorphic trees and a paper nymph looking forward to the violent and painful process by which the trees would be made into "a paper."
However, the museum included a workshop where visitors can make their own hanji, or traditional Korean paper. The museum handles all the first steps: all you have to do is take the mulberry pulp mix and shake it around in a bamboo screen for a few seconds. It's still cool, though, to see that bamboo peeled back to reveal the paper underneath.
Here's a video of me sieving the pulp (and being chastised by an ajeoshi--an alarmingly common occurence here in Korea).
(Thanks for taking the video, Nana!)
Here, a friendly ajumma dries the wet paper--this step has clearly been sped up by modern technology!--then another lays the paper out on a hot metal table that functions kind of like an ironing board.
We got to keep our little samples. Cool!
The workshop also included a station for making prints, which Nana and I did. The video below shows Nana making a sign that reads: "Make a harmonious family by being dutiful to your parents and live as a man of high integrity by giving up your greed."
Yes, it says all that in eight characters. Nana sez: Part of what makes classical Chinese so hard to read!
Here's the finished product:
All in all, the museum is worth a visit if you're living in or traveling through the south--but at almost three hours each way, it's a bit of a hike for a day trip from Seoul. It was fun, though, to take part, in however small a way, in the great tradition of Korean paper art.
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