Eunhee Cho

Bio

Eunhee Cho is a jewelry designer based in Seoul, South Korea. She majored in French language and literature at Sookmyung Women's University, after graduation she worked as a web designer for 5 years. She felt limitations and bored with the design that had to be implemented only on a monitor, and she became interested in crafts that could work with hands feeling the physical properties. So, after majoring in metal and jewelry design at Kookmin University's Graduate School of Techno Design, She launched her jewelry brand, ‘Lang Lang’. Recently, she is making paper jewelry based on the Korean traditional craft technique called 'Jiseung Crafts'.

Statement

My work style is to reinterpret Korean traditional craft elements in a modern way and embody them into various works. Metal crafts, textile works based on Korean traditional needlework called 'Gyubang Craft', Korean traditional knots, natural dyeing, and paper jewelry, all the creative variations are revealed in my work. While exploring and trying out the physical properties and craft techniques of various materials, I met 'Hanji' and 'Jiseung Craft'. Hanji is a paper made with the unique Korean method of manufacturing and is made from the bark of paper mulberry. Hanji is well-ventilated, tough, and has excellent preservation. 

The term "Jiseung" refers to a string made by rubbing and twisting paper. And "Jiseung Craft" refers to a traditional Korean craft technique in which Hanji is cut into thin and long pieces, rubbed with fingertips, and twisted into a double string to make various objects. In this way, when Hanji is woven into a single string and a double string and made into a three-dimensional object, it has excellent durability enough to maintain its shape even if it is wet, and above all, it is very light. This characteristic came to me as a very appropriate material to freely express the volume of jewelry without weight restrictions. In particular, when making earrings or brooches made of metal, the weight should always be considered, but my Jiseung jewelry was freed from such restrictions, allowing the design to be expanded in abundance as much as possible. In addition, how richer colors would be created if weaving ‘Jiseung’ after natural dyeing with dye materials such as turmeric, safflower, mugwort, acorns, and sappanwood on Korean paper? Just thinking about this makes my heart flutter. I wanna keep trying with various experiments in the future with Jiseung jewelry that gave me freedom like this way and I want to complete my own skills and voice as an artist, not just inheriting traditional techniques.
 

CV