Pojagi / Bojagi Resources
If you want to learn more about pojagi and traditional Korean sewing techniques, here are some more English resources to check out once you’ve seen everything at Epida Studio.
Artists
Youngmin Lee
Youngmin Lee is a textile artist living in the San Francisco Bay Area. She studied Clothing and Textile in college and continued her studies and received an MFA in Fashion Design. She worked as a fashion designer in Seoul, South Korea.
She chose Bojagi (Korean wrapping cloths) as her creative medium and presented workshops on Korean Textile Arts including Bojagi workshops. In addition to teaching in person, Youngmin created the DVD Bojagi: The Art of Wrapping Cloths in 2013 to reach people from afar. She teaches numerous workshops about Bojagi and Korean textile art form.
She founded the Korean Textile Tour in 2017 to introduce Korean traditional textile art and culture. I was personally able to join her in this tour in 2023 and it was an amazing experience.
Youngmin’s bojagi works have been exhibited and collected throughout the United States and abroad. The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco has her works in the museum collection.
She has a new book out that is a wealth of information on both the history and technique of bojagi, but also a number of inspiring projects to make. Check out my Bojagi book review.
Chunghie Lee
Chunghie Lee does not have a website that I can find, but has a lot of articles and video interviews about her art.
Sara Cook
Sara Cook is a UK-based artist with a passion for all types of textile art. She was introduced to pojagi by Chunghie Lee and continued to research and study.
Her work has been included in exhibits around the world, and she teaches
Her book, Bojagi, is a great English language resource on this topic. It is available on Amazon.
Magenta Kang
Magenta Kang is the UK’s leading practitioner of the Korean traditional techniques known collectively as Bojagi and Jogakbo. Her work is entirely hand-stitched and ranges in scale from tiny thimbles to large overhead installation pieces; it has been hung in galleries and even been included in street protests.
Living and working in Cambridgeshire, she teaches and exhibits regularly from her studio and gallery.
Moonhee Han
Moonhee Han‘s journey on bojagi re-started after presenting an exhibition on “Bojagi, Korean patchwork in Aotearoa” in Wellington, New Zealand in 2018. This exhibition became quite successful and brought a lot of new interest on bojagi in Wellington.
She then began organizing bojagi classes. Her studio was a hub to connect people. Diverse people with different backgrounds gathered and met during the classes. They unwrapped their stores and shared with others while learning and building hand sewing skills for bojagi.
Moonhee has recently relocated to Hong Kong and is working on a book based on her teaching experiences.
Instagram Accounts
There are a lot of great instagram accounts that will inspire you with their images. These are a few to get you started. Search #pojagi and #bojagi for even more.
Books in English
Bojagi – Design and Techniques in Korean Textile Art, Sara Cook, Batsford, London, 2019
Rapt in Colour – Korean Textiles and Costumes of the Choson Dynasty, Powerhouse Publishing, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, 1998
Wrappings of Happiness – a Traditional Korean Art Form, Honolulu Academy of Arts Publishing, Honolulu, 2003
Creative Women of Korea: the Fifteenth to the Twentiest Centuries, Young-Key Kim-Renaud, Routlege, 2003
Quilts around the World: The Story of Quilting from Alabama to Zimbabwe, Spike Gillespie, Voyageur Press, 2010
Articles
Pojagi: Patchwork & Quilts from Korea, International Quilt Museum
Embroidering Ancient Art, Korean Quarterly
Using Korean Bojagi in the Classroom, Association for Asian Studies
Videos
Interview with Chunghie Lee at 2009 Festival of Quilts, England
Making “Bojagi” by the Korean Cultural Centre Canada
These resources will get you started in learning more about the history and use of this art form.
If you know of more resources that should be included, please contact me so I can add them.