Korean hansan-ramie candle holder by Sung-mi Kim

This candle holder (which can also be used as a delicate basket to hold some treasures) was made by seamstress Sung-mi Kim, who specializes in traditional Korean sewing, from genuine hand-woven Korean hansan-ramie ( hansan - mosi ) fabric. The textiles Sung-mi uses, carefully sourced from traditional markets, are rare treasures spun and woven by elderly women who carry on ancestral traditions, in this case hansan-mosi, the most precious of Korea's textile traditions, listed as a UNESCO Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

With respect and patience, Sung-mi imagines small objects to magnify these textiles. For this piece, constructed in a very architectural manner, she imagined an airy and precious object, like a cloud in the Korean sky, which gives pride of place to the fibers of the hansan-ramie textile, an ancestral heritage of Korea, and whose delicate details of added threads and embroidery (on its base) bring great poetry.

Trained for three years in Japan as a seamstress after initial training in carpentry, Sung-mi, who lives in Seoul, completed her apprenticeship in Korea with a traditional sewing teacher. She works exclusively by hand, using natural Korean materials such as ramie, hemp, and cotton, which she dyes herself using natural processes. Each piece is unique, determined by the textile itself.

This precious object comes with a flameless LED tea light and can therefore be used if desired as a candle holder that diffuses a very soothing soft light, to hang thanks to its handle or simply to place on a table. It can also be combined with other models in this series for which each piece is unique.

Sung-mi Kim's work and her portrait can be discovered in this article , which also helps to understand the heritage of sewing in Korea. To better understand the importance of ramie in Korea, you can also read our full article on the subject here .

CARE INSTRUCTIONS : a little water and Marseille soap in case of stain, then let it dry flat. Light ironing, carried out before the fabric is completely dry, allows it to regain its shape if necessary (if necessary, place a thick cloth inside during ironing to restore its original shape).