Emma Bell: Library Books and Medicine Tea!!!

Oooohhh 안녕하세요 !!!! (That's 'Hello' in Korean....although I still can't ever remember it, let alone manage to pronounce it!!!)
So I've been quite slow on the old updates during my rural travelling adventures....mainly because now, It's full swing in the studio as I work on my new pieces for this series of work that I'm developing here in South Korea.... It's been really great working in the space as it's lovely and quiet and it gives me some hardcore time to get sewing and making my new collection! I'm really excited about all of the fabrics and medium I'm using as all of it is sourced entirely from S.Korea so it's a great chance to use a whole new range of colours, textures and prints!

My research here is a continual process so it's important for me to keep documenting my experiences and constantly seeking out new channels of influence which will be incorporated into my projects. A major focus of my current work is based around people and the community so I've been spending a lot of time with the locals and learning more about their day to day lives, which is super important for me in being able to fully grasp the true identity and character of the areas that I am interested in reflecting in my work.
So recently I enjoyed a special trip to a little village library which was really fun!!! It was super neat and organised and the librarian was so helpful. She even gave us 'medicine tea' and red bean rice cakes when we arrived!!! This was a new experience for me as usually back at home you have to sneak a drink of water in a library in full stealth mode~so it was nice to be able to sit amongst all of the colourful books and enjoy a cup of tea and an afternoon snack without getting shouted at!

It would be so easy to spend days upon end in this lovely, little library....I found a tonne of AMAZINGGG books that I just didn't want to ever return! It was quite tricky for me not being able to read Korean, so it was a bit of a task to find what I wanted as all I could see were rows and rows of books with indecipherable, squiggly characters on the spines...but that was an excuse to hang around there even longer!!!

A couple of the main themes of my project are Korean craft techniques and the idea of passing on folk tales and storytelling so I was able to find the perfect books for my research! Of course I even sneaked in a MAGICAL book all about stove-top, cake baking which is full of all of these awesome, colourful recipes for making treats that don't require and oven!!!
I've been doing some stove-top experiments....so far I've only managed a gourmet pizza made in a frying pan which is somewhat of a challenge when it comes to finding ingredients...but is totally worth the hassle when it comes to late night sewing treats and Western food cravings!!!!

I also found a beaut of a book all about Korean Origami... although it's usually considered a Japanese craft and the word originates from the Japanese language, it's a hugely popular past time here...another Korean paper craft is Hanji, which is used for making household items like lamps, pots and dishes so it's fun to be able to learn more about these methods and consider ways of drawing them into my projects. The Korean origami book was AMAZING....so many cute and colourful ideas and the pictures were adorable!!!
That's what has basically been going on recently.... when I've not been sewing I've been doing things like drinking coffee with the nun, riding around in cars called 'Gallopers', encountering more big spiders.... you get the idea!!!!
Now it's time to clean up the studio as there is literally a carpet of thread, fabric scraps, sequins and pins throughout the whole place.....then it's kettle on and back to the sewing machine!!! Talking of the sewing machine....I finally have one in the studio now after almost 6 weeks of hand sewing and bleeding fingers...I've never been so happy to see a sewing machine IN MY LIFE!!!