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This study, which aims to find new outlets for traditional handmade paper, has been carried out in three stages. In Stage 1 an investigation on the current situation of traditional handmade paper industry and products has been carried out by means of literature review, observation, interview, and comparison and analysis of handmade paper and ordinary industrial machine-made paper. A development strategy, which emphasizes the exquisiteness of handmade paper to justify its high price, has been preliminarily proposed for handmade paper based on its exquisiteness and expensiveness.
Stage 2 is a search for new horizons for the development of handmade paper. By analyzing modern life patterns, we come to the conclusion that wedding is one of those modern affairs which can afford the exquisiteness and expensiveness of handmade paper. Accordingly, we proceed to explore the wedding culture. In the process, traditional wedding ceremonial culture is reviewed, wedding related items are summarized, and wedding congratulations, wedding related proverbs, and characteristics and symbolic meanings of betrothal gifts are analyzed. As a result, such issues as wedding items into which handmade paper can be incorporated, design elements that can be adopted in wedding ceremonies, principles for the development of design, and principles for the development of wedding items made with handmade paper are all summarized as follows: (1) The design of these items should highlight the distinctive natural texture and grains of handmade paper; (2) the handmade effects of the texture should also be highlighted; (3) Elements of wedding culture should be embedded into patterns and modeling of the items, so that the items will be endowed with profound symbolic meanings; (4) They should be positioned as high-end products in terms of price position.
In Stage 3, the design concept is unfolded. Design approaches proposed by various scholars on image transformation have been analyzed, reviewed, and summarized. A 4-step procedure which involves (1) image association; (2) association strengthening; (3) image decoding; and (4) transformation has been designed for the implementation of the study. The design process is divided into 3 stages, which are (1) analysis stage; (2) design concept development stage; and (3) design simplification(concentration) stage. A major design model for the development of design concept is to get an understanding of wedding customs & culture and look for a symbolic meaning with which to start the development of concept. Two major designs developed from the symbolic meanings of the two congratulations of “linked together” and “love & sweet” have been proposed during the process of actual application of design creation, and two series of concepts which incorporate handmade paper into the design of wedding items also take shape in the study.
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