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In the pursuit of being accurate, a member of the SCA may eventually come across a problem: the fabric they use is not accurate enough. Whether this is jumping from using polyester fabric to a more appropriate fabric or limiting your fabric purchases to fabrics with accurate motifs, everyone has a form of this problem pop up in their SCA career. I had switched from 100% cotton to 100% silk a few years ago as I was leaning more towards an East Asian persona. As I became more entrenched in my Korean persona, the search for fabrics with accurate motifs has increasingly become more difficult.

The issues contributing to this problem can be summarized by the following points:

• Fabric decays. Silk fabric can start to show signs of degradation in four years. At this point, 1600 was 420 years ago. The fabric that has survived is minimal and if it has survived, the decoration on the fabric is one of the first things to degrade.
• North Korea. Its regime limits our excavations to only half of Korea. Though talks have occurred to excavate tombs, this has not come to fruition. This can be especially disheartening if you are interested in the kingdom of Gogoryeo as I am, as North Korea encompasses the majority of the land Gogoryeo existed in.
• To be frank, Korean history is not popular. Both China and Japan tend to have more information available on the web and/or in English. Furthermore, most East Asian exhibits or galleries also tend to have little if any pieces from Korea.
• The representation of figures in art tends to be limited to religious figures. The aesthetic of the time focused on nature, not the human form.

There are several solutions to this problem, which are as follows:

• Go with plain color silk. Boring, but convenient. Will take the least amount of time and money.
• Some semi-accurate fabric can be bought from Korea; however, they are not completely accurate and tend to be made of polyester. This will actually take more money than the plain color silk if shipping is involved, but it will have more of a Korean aesthetic.
• Go with fabric that is accurate for a country surrounding Korea. Since these countries are more popular and more studied, you can get some really nice 100% silk fabric. This tends to cost the most money and while it may not perfectly capture the Korean aesthetic, it definitely captures an East Asian aesthetic and it is reasonable to say your persona had access to this fabric in period.
• Learn how to weave your own fabric and weave with inspiration from sources. This would be the most accurate; however, this is going to take some time and sanity…
• Go with plain color silk and block print it with custom stamps based on period art. This is still going to take some time, but will be more accurate and less costly than other solutions.
• Give up. Obviously, giving up is not an option.

I have personally done most of the solutions above (except weaving my own fabric, I have not risked my sanity in that way yet). This post was made to go over my process for my solution of choice: making custom block stamps and block stamping plain color silk.

Redacting The Design (~A Few Weeks of Casual Research)

During my research into other topics, I collected examples of fabric motifs both on extant fabrics and on paintings painted in period. One thing that I kept seeing pop up is a circle motif, usually composed of swirls, waves, or leaves. The circle itself was not outlined and appeared to be even spaced. Paintings with this motif ranged from 14th CE to late 16th CE. These tended to be on the main figure of the painting, perhaps indicating that someone of higher status would have this fabric, but there are examples of secondary figures also having this motif on their clothes.

Since these were all paintings of religious figures, one concern of mine was that this was a religious motif of some sort; however, research into this possibility has yet to yield anything, so I felt comfortable enough to use this motif on my own clothing. I did end up going with a variant of the circle motif I found where the motif is a leaf shape instead of a circle. The leaf variant was only found on one painting compared to the multiple paintings with the circle motif; however, I chose to use the leaf rather than the circle as I found the leaf more aesthetically pleasing.

Making the Stamp (~3 Hours of Work)

Block stamping has a long history, especially in Middle and East Asia. From Greeks in the 4th-5th CE BC to China in 600 AD, this technique has been used by many cultures during various time periods. Unfortunately, since blocks tend to be made of wood and fabric loses the decoration made from block stamping faster than any other form of decoration, evidence of the usage of this technique can be limited. Though I have yet to find evidence of this technique used in Korea, the fact that all cultures surrounding Korea had block printing leads to the assumption that Korea also used this technique in some form or fashion.

A lino block was used for the block stamp rather than wood as lino is easier to carve. I printed out a picture of the leaf motif, and copied it in pencil onto the lino block. After this, I carved away the negative space to create the final stamp.

Printing The Fabric (~2 Hours of Work)

My fabric of choice was a beautiful dark green 100% silk of which I had 2.5 yards of. I chose this color specifically as my barony had an investiture coming up, and, of course, I needed a new outfit for this occasion. Since their colors are green and gold, I chose to stick with gold paint for the stamped design. I used Jacquard Products 442392 Lumiere Metallic Acrylic Paint 2.25 Ounces-True Gold for the paint. Before stamping, I prepped my fabric and cut it into 22 in. wide panels (to mimic loom widths of the time) and 37 in. long (approximately the measurement from my armpit to the floor). This left me with four panels and an additional piece of fabric that was 11 in. by 37 in. This leftover fabric was stamped anyways as I intend to use it for my cuffs and collar of my jeogori (Korean jacket). Finally, the fabric was marked for the stamp placements and I got to stamping!

After the fabric is all stamped, I left it to dry for 24 hours. Once that time was up, I ironed both sides. 

Making The Skirt (~3-4 Hours of Work)

The chima (Korean skirt) is an essential piece of the hanbok (Korean female outfit) and has been since at least the Three Kingdoms Period (57 BC – 668 AD) where we see tomb murals depicting women wearing hanboks. These are essentially wrap skirts tied just under the armpits and ends at the floor. 

For the chima, I cut out panels of 100% linen and flat lined each silk panel with the linen panels. I then attached each panel together, knife pleated it at the hem, and attached the waistband (made of the same 100% linen). I finally attached linen ties to the ends of the waistband. This did take me more than the estimated 3-4 hours as I hand sewed the majority of the chima, but if you machine sew, you should not go over the time estimate.

Results

There were some mistakes made and tears shed during this process, but overall the results are amazing! I feel like I walked out of a painting and the chima looks beautiful. Time-wise, this project took me maybe half a year to complete as it kept being pushed back for other projects. My barony’s investiture made it a priority, but the COVID-19 isolation gave me the time to finish including hand sewing, which I had not originally time budgeted into this project.

Cost-wise, this project costed me a little over $50. However, I already had the carving tool and the linen was discounted as I had bought a whole bolt of it. After I had already bought the lino block, I found a local art store sells large blocks of lino for $11. This one block could be broken down into various stamps resulting in a singular stamp being cheaper.

Money Spent on this Project:

In the future, I would like to explore historical paints used for block stamping. I would also like to dive more into research on block stamping. But as always, I will be stamping on!

Cat Tax: