Maedeup

I actually started learning some knots! I have a somewhat obsessive personality type, so once I start something, I can't put it down. Over the course of yesterday, I learned these knots:

Dorae:

Wae dorae:

Hapjong:

Nalgae:

Dongshimgyeol:

Dorae wasn't too bad once I got it. Wae dorae, strangely, I found harder than dorae, but I'm getting better. With these two knots, the hardest thing for me is making them close to one another. Some of the jewelry pieces in Elegant Knotted Jewelry require a whole bunch of these knots back to back, so I have to learn how to make them closer together.

Hapjong was quite easy and looks really cool in two colours.

Nalgae wasn't too hard, but it's hard to make the knots look consistent. It kind of reminds me of when you first start knitting and your tension is all over the place. Even tension and consistency can take some serious time to achieve.

The last knot, dongshimgyeol, gave me the most trouble. It's hard to hold all the pieces of cord in one hand while threading with the other. But it looks super cool when it's done. I was pretty proud.

I'm now working on garakji, and this I'm finding the most challenging yet. I can do the knot itself no problem. Actually, I use a large metal tapestry needle to do the threading and it takes no time at all (I'm sure that's a no-no with many traditional maedeup artists). It's the tightening that I can't get! But I'm so determined to get it, so you'll see a picture of it soon enough. I think it is such a cool-looking knot, so I can't wait. And it seems to be used quite a lot in maedeup pieces, so I can't just skip it.

All of my knots are far from perfection right now, but I'm digging maedeup so far. Grace also likes it.