Sunday, November 08, 2020

crystal award plaques

Seen in Jongno:






I'm incapable of doing anything early on weekends (unless I'm going walking somewhere with JW), so I left my place rather late in the day, and because it's Sunday, of course most of the shops in the Jongno/Euljiro area were closed.  I had thought I'd find way more award-plaque shops than I did:  I found only one.  It was closed, unsurprisingly, but above are some snapshots of the sorts of products on sale—an interesting array, indeed.  I could have sworn there were more such shops in the area, though.  Maybe I'll go back on a Saturday.

As for how much such plaques might cost:  an online search didn't prove very helpful because, as it turns out, prices vary wildly, probably because of factors like the size and type of glass used, as well as the simplicity or complexity of the requested etching.  Some of these places offer 3D laser etching to produce images that "float" inside the glass; somewhere in my Virginia public-storage space, I've got some small hunks of glass with laser-etched 3D dragons writhing inside them—trinkets I'd bought years ago.  Anyway, the midrange price seems to be around 40 dollars, US, or around 45,000 Korean won, but prices can go as high as hundreds of dollars.  I'll keep researching the topic online, but ultimately, I'll get more questions answered, and more quickly, by visiting a shop and peppering the owner with questions about price and turnaround time.  What I want to do now is find out whether a plaque shop exists in my own neighborhood of Gaepo-dong.  Seems like a waste of time to have to go all the way across town if there's a plaque-maker nearby.

I'm also researching how these plaques are supposed to look.  Many of them will have some sort of catchy graphic on top, followed by a large-font title along the lines of "In Recognition Of..." or "Outstanding Achievement."  After that, necessary elements include a smaller-font subtitle that makes specific what the award is for, the recipient's name, and possibly some words of congratulations, encouragement, and/or wisdom.  I think the Tao Te Ching's aphorism 千里之行,始於足下, often translated "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step," might be apropos for a distance-walking award.*

UPDATE:  there are a few plaque shops within a 1.5-km radius of where I live.





*The more literal translation is:  "A journey of a thousand li begins under one's feet."  The proverb pre-dates the Tao Te Ching.  The Korean rendering of the common English translation is, if I'm not mistaken:  천마일의 여행은 한 걸음으로 시작됩니다.  I might design the trophy to show all three languages:  Chinese, Korean, and English.  If that's not overkill.  By the way, the distance unit li (), in modern times, is exactly 500 meters.



1 comment:

John Mac said...

There used to be lots of those type stores in Itaewon, but I suspect many catered to the military clientele and have likely closed down with Yongsan's closure.