The Congress

I didn't get a chance to post during the Congress but was able to post the pictures to Facebook in several albums. The opening dinner, day 1 of the congress involved a visit to a forest park and to a sculpture park that was part of an enormous country club (several golf courses, tennis courts, condos, ski runs etc etc) then to the Hanji Theme Park for the opening of the Paper Road Exhibition.  Day 2 started with the General Meeting or maybe presentations (!) and ended up at the Theme Park again where we struggled to make some traditional paper shoes (mine is the small misshapen one). Day 3 was presentations in the morning and workshops in the afternoon, this time I made, well partly made, a lamp.  The next day was workshops in the morning then off to the temple to stay for a day. Part of the deal at the temple was a 3.50 am rise and a walk by the river. On the way back we visited a Hanji factory and saw them making quite large coloured sheets. The final dinner was fabulous with a couple of performance pieces and wonderful drummers and dancers then a Mexican rock and roll band. The next day half the group started on the Post Congress tour and the rest of us went our separate ways, I went into Seoul and stayed with Minyoung and her sister. I went to Insadon and Namdemon market for a bit of retail therapy and the next morning the three of us visited Hongik University where we saw a fabulous ceramic show of work from China, Taiwan, Japan and Korea.

second week in Japan

I haven't updated here for over a week and what a week it has been. I will just give links to my papermaking photos but if you want to see the rest feel free to befriend me on Facebook. We went from Himeji Castle to Kameoka where we stayed with Deborah and her husband Kantero. Deborah is a papermaker and her husband does traditional silk dyeing, originally for kimono but now he makes framed works. He has an exhibition in Kyoto next month so is very busy preparing work. The next day Deborah drove us to Sonobe and on to a school where the papermakers from Kirotani are teaching the next generation of hand papermakers. We had a workshop doing nagashisuki and tamesuki then we went up to the village of Kurotani then back to the school to pick up the tamesuki we had made in the morning, it was pressed between blotters. We then went to Sonobe for a tea event and Mike and I had a homestay with a lovely family the only picture we took there was one of me playing (sort of) the Koto.  We then spent three days in Kyoto visiting temples and shrines and barely scratching the surface. We spent a day in Nara and caught a late train to Tokyo in preparation for a trip to Ogose to visit with Richard Flavin who has a studio in the mountains and makes beautiful paper works. Paul Denhoed escorted us through the many train changes as we made our way to Ogose. Richard drove us back to Tokyo the next day and we visited his wife's gallery Sind, she is a textile artist and is collaborating with Richard on some paper handbags using kozo paper treated with kakashibu (fermented persimmon juice) and lots of machine stitching, they look great. A couple of days in Tokyo looking around firstly a great printing museum, then today a visit to a papermaking museum and Mori Art Gallery (53rd floor of the building). There is a great piece which was made at Awagami, it is all made from paper, you walk in and have to duck then put your head up through holes then you see a paper forest, a bit further on you can watch some video documentation projected onto washi of the whole process. Our last port of call for the afternoon was Suntory museum for a display of ceramics from the 17th Century to today. I was able to take a few pictures with my phone camera of the installation and of a couple of light pieces made from Washi in the building of the Suntory museum.