Korea's Mother of Tatting

Hey world, after 16 months of being cut off from the world wide web. I am back!! We were finally able to get an outrageously expensive and yet extremely limited Internet plan! Isn't that lovely!
Anyhow, I will be able to blog again and I view that as a real victory.
This is a story I've been wanting to share since October 2014 when I first learned it myself. (Even though in a round about way, it is sort of a story about me.)
We have to go way back to the time I lived in Korea. For all my bloggy reader pals you will remember my blogs during this time. After living in S. Korea for a few months I learned that absolutely no where could tatting be found in their culture. So I made some Korean girlfriends and I taught them to tat. That in itself is a lovely story. But wait until you hear what happened after I left!!!!

One of my students, my star student Anna, went on to start her own Korean tatting blog and became a tatting teacher and designer herself. Well, unbeknownst to me, her blog became wildly popular and quickly gained thousands of followers. Tatting had officially taken off in Korea like wild fire.

Fast forward to the present. This student ended up marrying an American soldier and has come to live in America. One of my other students, who is one of my dearest friends and kindred spirit came to stay with us for a few weeks in MS, this was her very first visit to America. This all took place last Fall. We learned that Anna lived in Destin, FL which is only a few hours from us...so of course we all went road tripping. Plus it was lovely to share our white sand beaches with our visitor Kyoungmi.

This is the part where I learned the following. In 2014, the country of South Korea had a television special about tatting in Korea, of course it all started with Anna, who is now and forever reverently called, "The Mother of Tatting".

One of her students went on to write two Korean tatting books which Anna gifted to me on our visit. Of course, in the midst of all this there is a tiny mention of me, the American who brought tatting to Korea. Anna showed me all the press and it's all Korean, Korean, Korean, Sherry Pence, Korean, Korean.

Absolutely delightful!

I can tell you, I was one excited teacher to hear that all this had been taking place since I left Korea in 2009.

You know, I almost never went to Korea? It was decided that I would stay in America while my husband did his year tour. But at the 11th hour, I made the decision to go. And of course I am SO glad I did!

How cool is all this???

This is Kyoungmi, myself, and Anna (who at the time was expecting her second child).

These are the beautiful Korean tatting books!

All this happened in essentially 5 years.



Okay friends, please be patient with me as I update all my links and information. I will also be reopening my Etsy tatting shop, where I will continue to sell my one of a kind tatting shuttles and hand dyed silk and cotton threads, and of course my Tatting books.

Also, I have been out of the scene for sooo long that I don't know what I've missed. Neither do I know how ancient and outdated I must be by now. Would anyone kindly mind educating me and bring me up to speed on what is current?

And finally, I will be going to Palmetto Tat days in September, so I hope to see a lot of you there! Yay!