Knots keep hold on skill master's life

Shim Young-mi twists and crosses strings to make the dahoe or cord on a tool in her workshop in Gahoe-dong, Seoul. / Courtesy of DongLim Maedeup Workshop

By Kim Ji-soo

There is a vivid memory of a day in junior high school where I was completely immersed in “maedeup” or Korean knots. The simple technique of twisting and looping a piece of chord lured me in like a cosmic black hole. I was so engrossed that I didn’t notice the teacher noticing and calling me out, and eventually taking away the knot I was working on.

I never revisited maedeup because of the public shame.

The knots had a similar hold on Shim Young-mi, 68, who stuck to the Korean knots, unlike me.

A waist-band that Shim Young-mi recreated based on the relic that was excavated from a grave from a Joseon official named Byeonsu.

Spurred on by the practicality, the all-consuming focus it offered to its practitioner and the eventual call for a higher form, she held on to the knots. Her path is akin to that of the traditional art that began as a survival technique in the old days, then a skill for knotting and weaving, and eventually an art form.

“I have never regretted once focusing for 50 years on maedeup and maedeup only, because I believe one has one’s expertise that no one else can surpass,” said Shim, director of DongLim Maedeup Workshop, in an interview with The Korea Times.

“With Korean knots, you have to concentrate,” Shim said. “Once something goes wrong, you just have to un-tie, go back to the beginning and start from scratch. And each and every work is different.”

The “nakjibal daesamjak norigae” or the a large pendant with triple ornaments with octopus tassels made by Shim Young-mi.

Last week, she held a joint exhibition not only with fellow maedeup creators but also traditional Korean embroidery at the Gana Insa Art Center in Insa-dong. It’s the same street that sells a range of Korean knot products, from cellphone and handbag accessories to brooches.

There she presented maedeup in the pure artwork form. She showed two works, the “nakjibal daesamjak norigae” or a large pendant with triple ornaments and octopus tassels, and a broad waistband used by Joseon officials.

For the triple ornaments, she used coral, jade butterfly and amber, connecting them with the octopus-arm shaped tassels.

“For anyone who has done maedeup, the large three-ornament norigae with octopus tassels is a work that will clearly show a person’s skills. The coral, the jade and the amber must fall neatly in line with the knots,” said Shim.

The hanok provided by the Seoul Metropolitan Government for Shim to open her DongLim Maedeup Workshop.

“There is a certain power in the knots and the accompanying tassels that I’ve created by mixing and twisting threads,” Shim said.

“Once you give it power, it won’t droop powerless,” she said, beaming with the confidence of a one who is not only good but enjoys what she does.

On the day of the interview, which came on the opening day of the exhibition, Shim wore a hanbok consisting of a royal beige top and yellow skirt accented with her cicada norigae work. Surrounded by golden-string knots and flowing pastel-toned tassels, the cicada that made for the ornament gave off a seeming perception that it was having fun amid the multi-colored knots and tassels.

A lay Korean person may identify maedeup with decorative knots. Or as the cellphone, handbag or fan accessories sold in Insa-dong or as historical artifacts in the museums.

The art of making maedeup requires a laborious process involving four different processes — dyeing the strings, making the dahoe (cord), maedeup (knots) and sul (tassels).

The four processes allowed maedeup artisans to produce works with cords, knots, tassels and often ornaments that adorned king’s portraits, seals, palanquins and biers in the Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910).

Shim got her start in the early 1960s. The man-next-door was a maedeup master who outsourced work to Shim. He also picked up his practice from an aunt who used to work in the palace.

“I was 18, and was raising my nephew at home. I took on the job to make a living,” she said.

She said there was a demand for such works because Koreans in the 1960s and 1970s still used pouches with maedeup as their strings. She received compliments for her handiwork, which encouraged her to do better. The work connection led to a family connection as she married a son of the man next door. Her husband is also a master maedeup artisan.

Then Kim Hee-jin, a state-designated Important Intangible Cultural Asset No. 22, contributed to elevating it to an independent art form in the 1970s, after which maedeup’s usage broadened into interior decorative works.

“During the 1986 Asian Games and the 1988 Seoul Olympics, we just couldn’t make enough maedeup to meet the demand,” she said. She confessed that she and her husband made money during that period that allows her to continue with her work even now.

Aside from commercial work, Shim has created pure art works including the recreation of maedeup from the Joseon Kingdom, basing on such historical records as the 1872 portrait of King Taejo. She also participated in making the chord and tassels for the wrapping of the fourth Korean national seal in 2004.

Now the demand for maedeup is largely split into two — as high art and accessories.

Shim is realistic about the relative decline of Korean knots, saying that her daughter-in-law and second son who succeeds the family business for the fourth generation, must now adapt to new skills.

“I think the next generation of maedeup artists needs to adapt. They need to acquire other colloraborative skills, perhaps like the fashion and the metal art students who come to our workshop,” she said.

At her workshop/museum in Gahoe-dong, Seoul, she teaches a one-day program to foreign visitors mainly from Japan and Europe.

She does not dwell on the fact that she has not received the Important Intangible Cultural Asset designation — there are two currently in the nation. She is a Korea Traditional Skills Transmitter as designated by the Ministry of Labor and the Human Resources Development Service of Korea. “If it comes my way, I will be thankful. But as long as I have the skills, I won’t pine over titles,” she said.

After 50 years in maedeup, how does she define it?

“Maedeup, it’s not something one may necessarily need, but it compliments and enhances the other,” Shim said.