오늘 우리는 자개공예 그립톡을 만들었어요.
자개공예는 조개껍데기를 가공해 만드는 자개라는 전통 조각을 각종 물품에 붙여 장식하는 예술이에요. 바스러지기 쉬운 자개로 꽃, 학, 구름 등 다양한 모양을 아름답게 만들어 꼼꼼하게 붙여야 하기 때문에 예로부터 왕족과 귀족을 위한 사치품이었어요.
요즘도 자개공예는 손이 많이 가는 작업이에요. 그래서 자개공예로 만든 보석함이나 옷장 등의 가구는 한 개에 수백만 원을 호가합니다. 그럼에도 요즘은 전통 공예가 재조명되면서 많은 사람이 자개공예를 배우고 있고, 자개공예 장식을 쓰는 카페나 식당도 많아지고 있어요. 특히 서울이나 경주처럼 다양한 테마나 한옥이 많은 곳에 가면 자개로 장식된 물품이 많은 카페를 찾을 수 있어요.
우리는 전통 자개는 아니지만 간단한 키트로 우리만의 그립톡을 만들었어요. 그립톡 말고도 거울을 준비해서 함께 자개 키트로 장식할 수 있게 했어요.
그립톡에 풀을 바르고 조심스럽게 자개를 붙이니 어느덧 멋진 그립톡이 완성됐어요. 멋진 그립톡을 스마트폰에 붙이고 다니면 좋겠죠?
========== English Translation ==========
Today, we made our very own mother-of-pearl phone grips!
Mother-of-pearl craft, known as najeon (나전), is a traditional Korean art that uses pieces of processed seashells to decorate various objects. Because the delicate, fragile pieces of mother-of-pearl have to be carefully shaped into beautiful designs such as flowers, cranes, and clouds and then meticulously attached by hand, najeon items have long been considered luxurious goods made for royalty and the aristocracy.
Even today, najeon is a highly labor-intensive craft. As a result, furniture such as jewelry boxes and cabinets decorated with mother-of-pearl can cost several million Korean won or more. Despite the time and effort involved, traditional crafts are gaining renewed attention these days. More and more people are learning najeon, and cafés and restaurants featuring mother-of-pearl decorations are becoming increasingly popular.
In particular, if you visit places like Seoul or Gyeongju, where you can find plenty of themed spaces and traditional Korean hanok houses, you can easily find cafés filled with beautiful mother-of-pearl decorations.
While we didn’t use traditional najeon pieces, we used a simple craft kit to make our own phone grips. We also prepared mirrors so that everyone could decorate them with the mother-of-pearl kit as well.
We applied glue to the phone grips and carefully placed the tiny pieces of mother-of-pearl one by one. Before we knew it, our beautiful phone grips were finished!
Wouldn’t it be fun to put your handmade phone grip on your smartphone and take it with you wherever you go?
