ONE OF THE BEST REASONS TO VISIT SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA

Written By Robin Wade

Crowds at Hangang Yeouido Spring Flower Festival / Kim SungjinOne of the best reasons to visit Seoul, South Korea

By Michael Jones, Seoul

Quick…what comes to mind when you think of South Korea?  I’ll bet it’s North Korea?  Or Kim Jong Il?  Or maybe a phrase like, “Korea is the country that’s dangerously close to North Korea.”  If that is true, what a shame.  The truth is, there is a lot to behold here in the Land of Morning Calm.  

Case in point…

Spring is coming, and that means Cherry Blossoms!  If there’s one thing to delight any designer, it’s the beauty of the tiny pink and white cherry flowers splashing their radiance into parks and along the sidewalks of Photo credit: http://www.seoulselection.com/seoul/?p=4427)Seoul.  Their brief beauty is reason enough for people like me to choose to live here.  


A cherry blossoms life is a perfect story.  It begins like an action packed novel, with an amazingly flashy entry into life, blooming in a day’s notice.  It develops its lovely character over a brief seven-day life span that seems to reach a fever pitch.  Then, in an encore of beauty, its petals break off and shower to the earth with a graceful, soft elegance; a perfect ending to a perfect tale.

So I urge you to cast off the knee-jerk associations of tyrannical dictators or the threat of war upon hearing the name Korea.  Instead, from now on begin envisioning the image of a cherry blossom and its tale of beauty.  Ask photo credit: http://flickrhivemind.net/User/Seoul%20Korea/Interestingyourself if the storied life of its blooming splendour is all that South Korea has to offer.  Ask yourself if this natural poster announcing the beginning of spring is only but the start of another amazing story… the story of summer. 

ONE OF THE BEST REASONS TO VISIT SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA

Robin Wade
Robin Wade Furniture is a celebration of nature—a melding of a forward thinking commitment to the environment and a quiet, harmonious design aesthetic. From his "slow studio" in North Alabama, award-winning wood artist Robin Wade designs and crafts one-of-a-kind handmade furniture. Years before a piece is ready to enter a client's home or a gallery, the process begins—naturally—with the tree. Sustainably harvested, each specimen of hardwood is flitch sawn into natural-edge wood slabs, debarked by hand with a draw knife, and stacked to dry, usually for years, before the final cure in the kiln. From here, Wade and his team use both hand and power tools to bring Wade's vision to life, and then finish each piece with a hand-rubbed oil blend. Each organic furniture creation by Robin Wade Furniture balances the raw, natural beauty of environmentally, locally sourced hardwoods with minimally invasive, clean lines—a juxtaposition Wade calls both rustic and modern. “I haven’t yet found a better artist than nature,” he says.
robinwadefurniture.com
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