Handmade Korea Fair - What an amazing experience!

The huge craft show HANDMADE KOREA FAIR was held in the Hall B of the COEX Complex in Gangnam, Seoul from July 23 to July 26, 2015.

HanjiNaty was there for the 4-day event! Here are a few pictures from the Fair :

 No need to say that I was very excited to be part of this amazing adventure! There were over 500 booths in the Fair, including mine.

All the items for sale in my booth were handcrafted by me. All my products is made with high-quality Hanji paper from Korea. 

My booth was filled with different types of items : hair accessories (hair pins, pony tail ties, etc.), jewelry (earrings, necklaces, and brooches), and home decor items (pen holders, coasters, magnets, and plates).

I was lucky to have a wonderful booth partner! My friend Seula was with me on Thursday and Friday, to welcome visitors, answer their questions and make sure communication was smooth with my Korean clients (as my Korean language skills are limited). She did an awesome job, thank you Seula!

For the last two days of the Fair, my beloved husband was there with me. As always he was unbelievably helpful as my booth partner, driver, motivator, translator and salesperson.

A lot of visitors took pictures of my booth, and picked up my business cards. I was pleased to see that some Korean bloggers wrote about my shop :
★ http://cafe.naver.com/handarty/7179
★ http://blog.naver.com/marananta199/220431325775
★ http://blog.naver.com/hsk2459/220431220450

Handmade Korea Fair.... in 10 days!

As I proudly announced in a previous blog post, I will be participating at the end of July in HANDMADE KOREA FAIR, a large craft show held in the COEX Convention & Exhibition Center in downtown Seoul!

For the longest time Handmade Korea Fair was a distant project, something exciting and a little scary for sure, but that was relatively far in time. Now when I look at my calendar I realize.... it's in 10 days!

Getting ready

For the last few weeks, I have spent most of my awake time crafting Hanji paper items, in order to get ready for this Craft show. I had an ambitious target of 1,600 items, but I have to admit that I will most likely not reach that number in time for the Fair!.... I am now revising my plan, and aiming for a total of 1,100 items.

If you were to visit my apartment in Iksan you would see that I literally took over the living room, that is now my Hanji workshop! There is paper everywhere, supplies and tools on every free surface, and bins of hardware, paintbrushes and cardboard scraps all around the house! I have to take the time here to thank my husband and our four cats for their amazing patience.

Now that time is running out, I will have to prioritize and be as strategic as possible with my time and energy. There are so many things I would like to be making, but I have to make choices!.... It is no easy task for me.


New products in the HanjiNaty booth

In my booth at the Fair I want to make sure to offer an interesting selection of accessories and home decor items, and I especially want to focus on my patchwork collection. I have been crafting new square coasters (with ledge) to complement the pen holders and round coasters I am already offering to my customers.

I am also working on different sizes of hair pins, as my Korean customers often request smaller pins that would fit their style better. At the Fair people will now have the choice between 5 sizes of hair pins, from mini (3 cm) to jumbo (10 cm).


Where to find me

Handmade Korea Fair will be held in the B Hall of COEX, from July 23 (Thu) to July 25 (Sun). The Fair will be open to the public from 10am to 7 pm on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and from 10am to 6pm on Sunday. The entrance fee is 10,000won.

Here is a map of the Fair. My booth is marked in blue (number A18) :

How to get to COEX : http://www.coex.co.kr/eng/visitors/directions-map-2

See you there!