Poe-Mok Saang-Gum

I have just received on a workshop at Tamarack
Foundation led by Komelia Okim. The newsletter mentions that Ms.
Okim is an authority on a metal technique known as Poe-Mok
Saang-Gum. Can someone enlighten me as to what this technique is and
how it is done? Thanks! Sharon

I think this is metal inlay, in this technique you use a wide chisel
and make lots of tiny hatch marks in two directions, perpendicular
to each other if I recall correctly. Then you take thin metals and
inlay them by smashing them into the hatch marks.

Sorry for the imperfect description – I took a class with Okim in
’97 and this was just a small part of a longer class. But I believe
that’s what you’re talking about – it triggered a memory when I
read that.

Elaine Luther
Chicago area, Illinois, USA
Metalsmith, Certified PMC Instructor
Studio 925; established 1992
@E_Luther

I took a workshop with Komelia Okim, and one of the techniques she
showed us was inlaying gold and silver foil into depressions we made
in a piece of steel. We used chisels to cross hatch into the steel,
then burnished the foil into the depressions. It seems to me that it
was referred to as a process similar to damascene. Unfortunately I
never finished my piece, as I had developed tendonitis and found
hammering the chisel into the steel aggravated it. Others in the
class made some really impressive things.

Alma

Komelia Okim will be giving a workshop for the Seattle Metals Guild
at the end of this month. One of the techniques that she will be
teaching is “Poe-Mok Saang-Gum.”

Here is her description of this technique:

Poe-Mok Saang-Gum is a Korean damascene technique of inlaying foil
and/or wire on mild steel sheet without soldering. The foils or
wires must be very thin, fine metals, 24K gold foil, fine silver
foil and/or copper foil can be milled to a 0.25mm. Mild steel plate
is attached to a metal surface block or on the metal anvil for
chiseling. The mild steel sheet is prepared for inlaying by
chiseling the surface with four-directional cut, lines spaced as
closely as in the tightly woven cloth such as tapestry.

The term “poe-mok saang-gum” derives from “poe-mok” meaning "cloth"
and “saang-gum” meaning, “inlay.” The finished surface resembles a
tapestry cloth.

This is the best explanation of Poe-Mok Saang-Gum that I have seen.

Carolyn Sealfon