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Hanji is a light, harmless and environmentally-friendly material. During the Joseon Period, Koreans used hanji to make various everyday goods including washbasins, handheld fans, document drawers, cushions and arrow quivers. Recently, with the development in material engineering, there is a new focus on the potentials of hanji.
According to residential environments, wallpaper, jangpanji (laminated floor paper), tile, bedding and flooring materials, and other goods that utilizing the properties of hanji, i.e. good air circulation and environmental-friendliness are enjoying popularity. Disposable underclothes, shoes, bags and clothes made of hanji have also been introduced to the market. In addition to its excellent durability, hanji fiber products wash well. Compared to ordinary fiber, hanji fiber offers excellent anti-bacterial, deodorizing and sweat-absorbing advantages. Recently, children’s underclothes made of hanji have shown a sharp increase in sales, as it became known that they are good in preventing atopic dermatitis.
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Is it not surprising that credit cards, which were formerly known to be made of only plastic, are also now made of hanji. BC Card introduced its credit cards made of multi-layered sheets of hanji with a specially-treated surface. It is moisture repellent, does not create dioxin when incinerated, and is biodegraded when buried underground. Credit cards made of hanji are nature-friendly items that completely dissolve into water and carbon dioxide by micro-organisms when buried.
- Sonodyne, an audio equipment manufacturer, introduced a speaker with its vibration plate and outside panel made of hanji. This speaker was made by pasting together multi-layers of hanji and drying it in the air. The manufacturer says that it has a relatively high sound pressure resulting in splendid sound and that the sound quality does not deteriorate due to the deformation of the vibration plate.
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Ssangnyeong Bangjeok (Textile), in cooperation with the Korea Institute of Knit Industry, set up a machine that produces hanji thread and started producing hanji-made household goods, with a plan to extend the list to encompass an array of goods from clothes to interior products and industrial products, such as underclothes, hanbok, sportswear, shrouds, goods for senior citizens, patient clothes, hospital ward beddings, wallpapers, curtains, household goods, and even car fuel filters and air filters. The company has already supplied hanji fiber-made fabrics for 4,000 pairs of Nike shoes.
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Hanji has made an impressive debut even in household interior materials. Jidam introduced hanji-made lighting covers and ‘Jigojisun’ wallpapers that look like wall tiles. Its Jigojisun is the brand name for environmental-friendly wallpapers made purely of mulberry pulp. In contrast to other existing chemically-made interior materials, which cause sick house syndrome, hanji-made products are welcomed for their harmless and environmentally-friendly characteristics.
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The Hanji Distribution Center in Insa Art Plaza, Insa-dong, Seoul displays an assortment of hanji-made household goods, health goods, industrial products and functional clothing, in addition to handcrafts made by intangible cultural assets of the hanji craft. Some of the displayed goods are for sale. Accessories, hand-held mirrors, boxes and name card holders are popular as gifts.
