Korean Handicrafts: Arts in Everyday Life (Korea Essentials Book 20) by Seoul Selection Editorial Team

Author:Seoul Selection Editorial Team
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Seoul Selection
Published: 2016-01-27T16:00:00+00:00

Produced through the practice of arranging a series of consistently placed lines, inlay patterns are plain yet artistic, simple yet playful. The images reflect the hopes of people in the time they were made: riches and honor, long life, fecundity, and abundance. The ten aforementioned symbols of longevity seen in najeonjang can be found in ipsajang works as well: designs of flowers and birds, grasses and insects, or natural landscapes, such as a duck strolling along a stream with dropping willows overhead. Everyday items such as candlesticks, braziers, cigarette cases, locks, and stationery were some of pieces decorated with the technique; the use of inlay on such common objects was a way of keeping fine and traditional things close at all times, helping the owner keep composed and enjoy some moments of leisure.

Another defining feature of Korea’s inlay is the heavy use of silver. This was partly due to the scarcity of gold in the region, but the real reason may more accurately be associated with national identity. In the words of Japanese folk art researchers and art critic Yanagi Muneyoshi, silver is “a beauty that hides its light within.” More specifically, silver is somewhat plain when presented on its own, but when combined with other metals, it complements their beauty with a distinct charm—delicate yet lasting. It is perhaps this quality that has made it resonate so strongly with Korean emotions, and explains why silver is the dominant metal for inlay work. Also known as “silver stamping” or “silver threading,” ipsajang has become the Korean metal craft par excellence.

Two techniques have chiefly been used for inlay work: kkium (insertion) and jjoeum (chiseling). Widely used in the Goryeo period, insertion involved carving out a pattern in metal with a chisel and placing the silver threading inside. Because of the country’s reverence for Buddhism at the time, most of these pieces were examples of Buddhist art, including incense burners, incense boxes, and water urns made of bronze.

The Joseon era, however, brought a growing trend of suppressing Buddhism in favor of Confucianism. This meant that the bronze objects disappeared, replaced by a wide variety of iron-cast pieces used in the palace and noble homes for both daily and ceremonial life. Ipsajang survived the shift from bronze to iron, finding itself adapted to the change of techniques—namely, the emergence of chiseling. For this process, a chisel was used to flatten out the entire surface of the object, with the silver thread patterns then placed over top.

Apart from being decorated with the silver inlay itself, the surface of the object was often tinted with dark colors using traditional techniques; sometimes, the color and texture of the metal itself was highlighted. The traditional tinting process of darkening the base was intended to create a black-white contrast that would bring out the beauty of the silver. One common method used a mixture of pine soot and vegetable oil. These days, the pine soot is typically replaced by graphite powder. After tinting, the surface is prepared with vegetable oil and finished with a final polishing.

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