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Learning to Master Marbling in Korea
by Ky Lee
It was in early 2000 that I first began marbling after seeing a Japanese person on TV
make suminagashi using a black paint, using an ink-stick made of soot. Shortly
thereafter, I ventured into marbling with watercolors, but was unable to find the
necessary materials as well as any related books in Korea. I thus purchased some
carrageenan and a book called the 'The Ultimate Marbling Handbook' by Diane Maurer-
Mathison from the US. This book helped me greatly.
Afterwards I setup a homepage (www.marbling.pe.kr) and began uploading my works,
which now reaches over 800 examples. The homepage is not yet available in an
English version, but you may access the page to view pieces that I have done. Though
I have taught marbling to students and teachers in elementary school as well as
university, there are, as of yet, still few people in Korea devoted to this area to form any
type of group or association.
The materials I use are material that can be easily purchased in Korea. I mostly use
fairly low priced Windsor & Newton Ink and Liquitex watercolors. As for paper, I usually
use standard Croquis paper as well as colored-paper at times. I use a small sized bath,
because it is both difficult and time consuming to perform delicate patterning in a large
bath. Also it is easier to scan for uploading on my homepage.
Recently I have tried using CMC (Carboxy Methyl Cellulose) for my size, which can be
purchased at an affordable price in Korea. The disadvantage of using CMC is that
sometimes it does not wash off as well with water compared to Carrageenan. It can
also leave a glistening surface after the paper dries.
I would now like to provide a short introduction to a traditional paper used in Korea.
Korean traditional paintings are drawn on specially developed paper made from pulp
called ¡°"Hwa-sun-ji" ("hwa" means painting, "sun" is the name of the region in China
where supposedly the best paper was made, "ji" means paper). In some areas in
Korea, this paper is still hand-made. The characteristic of this paper is that it is very thin
and absorptive preventing any trickling during drawing the painting. After the painting is
finished a back panel is pasted as a backing and then framed.
Korean traditional paintings are called "Soo-mook-hwa"("soo" means water, "mook" is
the black stick (or cake) used for making the black paint, "hwa" means painting or
picture) which at first glance may look similar to Chinese and Japanese paintings.
"Soo-mook-hwa" are traditionally drawn using only thin and thick black color lines, but
recently some artists use watercolors.
Ky Lee lives in Seoul, Korea and has been marbling using a variety of
traditional and contemporary methods for six years. You can visit his site
featuring hundreds of his artworks at www.marbling.pe.kr. He is
interesting in investigating possible historical references to marbling in
the region.
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