My First Maedeup Class!

Here is the building where the maedeup shop is. The shop is on the third floor. Hellena from our relocation agency picked me up at our apartment. We first rode the bus to Seoul. You better make sure you carry small bills for the bus. The fare was 1800 won which is $1.80 US. I only had 10,000 won bills and the bus doesn't accept anything over 5000 won, so luckily Hellena covered my fare. We rode the bus until the route ended and then we caught a subway the rest of the way. It was really easy but I'm not sure I can do it myself yet.

The front door of the maedeup shop.

All the colorful cording used to make maedeup.

I got in trouble for taking this picture. They originally said I could take pictures but then got really upset when I did take some. They said they have a lot of SECRETS! Who knew, secrets in a maedeup shop. This is a picture of what they use to make the cording by hand and is called a cord frame. I don't think they do it this too often because you can buy the cording. They weave the spools in a pattern which creates the cording. I've seen it on television over here and it is really fascinating to watch. Don't tell anyone!

This is the teacher showing us a knot called dorae maedeup. I asked if they had handouts or books and they said no. You learn by example. I just hope I can remember it now that I am home! It looks like a simple knot but there were a lot of steps to it.

My first two knots! I am really proud of myself. There were three of us in the class: myself, Hellena and another Korean older woman (ajumma). It was great to have Hellena there to translate. She is a native Korean and did not know what maedeup was until I asked her about it when we moved here. She loved the class and she was a natural. She said it was like a vacation day for her and she wants to continue with lessons.

The shop offers intensive classes every Saturday for eight weeks. The classes are five hours long and you learn all the major knots. When you finish that series of classes, you can go onto the advanced knots. When you complete everything, you can be tested and become a Certified Maedeup Master which allows you to teach maedeup and open your own shop. You are not allowed to teach unless you are certified. I wonder if I would be the first American ever certified.

The subway entrance which is right next to the maedeup building.

I bought these from the shop along with some extra cording and they only charged me 8600 won ($8.60 US). They said they gave me special pricing because I was a special student. You know I do feel special!

My maedeup is on the left and our teacher's is on the right. Right before we left, the teacher gave me some folded up cording and I didn't realize until I got home that she gave me her maedeup as a gift. Do you see why I love it here??!!! I'm treated like I am special. Look out when I get back to the US!

I
We made this phone lanyard. It was really hard to do the maedeup in a smaller diameter cording and also in the same color versus using two different colors. The individual colored knots were premade. We made a knot as above, then strung a colored knot, made another knot and so on.