Korean Cobbler for a Day

This is how we spent a day as traditional Korean cobblers. When it comes to traveling, nothing beats a good hands-on experience. We always find them to be a great way to immerse ourselves off the beaten path in unique aspects of foreign culture.

So why we jumped at the chance to make a pair of shoes at the Korea Heritage Hub. For this particular workshop we made hwahye (화혜), which are traditional Korean shoes. They aren’t the preferred choice of footwear anymore, but you can still catch people wearing them with their hanbok for special occasions and performances. And some designers have even begun to modernize them for everyday wear.

The actual shoe making process wasn’t as difficult as I anticipated it just required a bit of precision and patience. Of course, this was more of a “Shoe Making for Dummies” type of approach, but still. The kits we were given came with the silk and leather pre-cut, some trimming, thick thread for some light sewing and adhesive already applied to the parts that required it.

But the coolest part was that our instructor for the day was a 6th generation Hwahyejang (화혜장), a craftsman who specializes in traditional Korean shoes. He actually took us through all the steps it takes to craft a single pair, usually using linen, cotton or silk (sometimes all three), several layers of leather and wood for the soles and only rice, thread and a boar hair needle to fasten it all together. Typically it takes artisans up to a week to make a single pair of hwahye.

Luckily it didn’t take us a week because the hwahyejang had personally prepared the simplified kits for us to get started on (insert huge sigh of relief here). We also used a modern day needle, though I wouldn’t have minded taking a crack at that boar hair needle. And we were even served some traditional tea and rice cakes to fuel our journey.

At the end, we came out of it with two beautifully crafted pairs of hwahye. They’re too big for our dog and too small for us, but they’re actually meant to be ornamental, sometimes they are even given as a gift for a baby’s Baek-il (백일) or 100th day celebration. Also, they’re are not so well made that I would actually put them to the test of daily use.

The Korea Heritage Hub is a cultural-experience center dedicated to promoting Korea’s intangible cultural heritage. That means traditional skills, crafts, performances, and living culture, not just historical buildings. It also mean getting the rare opportunity to meet master artisans, learn traditional techniques, and actual partake in crafting workshops like this one.

I’d say learning a traditional Korean skill from a master of the craft and coming out of it with a very unique souvenir is not a bad way to spend a few hours of your day. The program is called “K-it Day” and they hosts various artisans, so there is always something new to learn and try. If you’re interested be sure to check out the schedule and book here on KLOOK.