Q & A

Learn to make hanji from Aimee

I offer a summer week-long hanji retreat each July, and shorter weekend retreats on related topics, such as jiseung, natural dyeing, and paper thread. I can also design private sessions or co-sponsored ones. If you are interested, please let me know and I will place you on an email list for future class notifications.

Private coaching in Aimee’s studio

We can schedule private coaching at a daily rate, which does not include your travel and accommodation costs.

My hanji studio is equipped for 38 x 60 cm webal tteugi as well as smaller sized ssangbal tteugi (8 x 12 inches, 13.75 x 15.75 inches, etc.). I am also equipped for European-style papermaking with a Valley beater, various brass and poly moulds, and a 16 x 24-inch press.

Institutional teaching and lectures

Hosts cover my daily rate plus travel and accommodations (and materials fees for classes). Please email with information about what you are looking for, dates, and other pertinent details, such as your current studio setup.

Purchasing pre-made hanji

For large wholesale orders, contact Beau Kim at FIDES International in Seoul. My go-to American source is Paper Connection International. Other U.S. retailers include Hiromi Paper and Talas. I am wary of sources like Amazon as the provenance is unsure, unless you are satisfied with potentially lower-quality paper. Shops in Korea change too frequently for me to be able to advise, especially as I buy directly from papermakers or trusted dealers listed above.

I generally make hanji for my own artwork and projects. Papermaking is a difficult business and I do not consider myself a production papermaker. For large sheets and orders, I prefer to support Korean papermakers so that they can thrive.

Before contacting Aimee

Please first consult the resources on my website and other platforms. I get tons of emails on a regular basis, and if I were to answer them all I would have no time to work. Since I am an independent artist, no one compensates me for this service.

Speak to Aimee

We can set up a private consulting call with an initial consultation fee of $200, and you can decide from there if you want to continue sessions.

Hanji making in Korea

Even for those fluent in Korean, there are no formal ways to learn to make hanji in Korea. I was extremely fortunate to study directly with national and provincial intangible cultural property holders, but this is not an easy or straightforward path. Full-time papermakers in Korea have extremely full and challenging workloads, and training intermittent students who have no plans of staying to help is not beneficial to them nor logistically feasible. The best papermakers are extremely busy with each step of the seasonal, cyclical process to make excellent hanji, and they usually only communicate in Korean. While there is a hanji studio run by Lee Seung-chul at Dongduk Women’s University in Seoul, it is not open to the public. My teachers only accepted me through multiple referrals of their trusted colleagues and I had funding to compensate them for their time.

Fulbright guidance

There are many resources offered by your home affiliation (where you teach or go to school) and by CIES and IIE to guide this process. I have never been on the decision-making side, so you should get advice directly from the granting organization. Often, those who want this particular award are of Korean descent. In this case, I highly recommend that you go through the Korean nationality renunciation process early, otherwise you may be awarded a grant but have it revoked by Fulbright Korea, which they have done before. Even though this is an additional burden, and discriminates against Korean diaspora applicants, this process is demanded by the Korean government in order for you to be eligible for the visa that Fulbright requires. The process requires consular assistance and full support from your parents (this is particularly difficult for adoptees, though you can find help in their networks). I wrote about my process here, though it will be different for everyone.

If you have questions, we can set up a call as outlined above, though I offer no guarantees that you would be successful in an application.