Seoul, Korea-- leather crafting street

[DJole]

Just got back from a trip to Korea. On a day outing in Seoul, we managed to find the neighborhood in the city where leatherwork supplies can be found. 
It's located on the Western edge of the city, in the neighborhood of Sinseol-dong. Go east of downtown to the Great East Gate (Dongdaemun), where there is a subway stop by the same name. 
The subway line (line 1)  going East from there stops at Dongmyo, and then the stop you want is Sinseol-dong. You can also take a spur of line 2 (the Green line) which terminates at Sinseol-dong.
From Sinseol-dong station you need to go up to street level and east to the large intersection,  where Choui-ro (east-west) meets Nangye-ro (running north-south).

Look at the map below -- follow Nangye-ro SOUTH from the intersection, on the WEST side of the street until you see the smaller road Nangye-ro 27-gil crossing the main street east to west. 
 

 (You could also get a taxi-driver to drive you to that intersection; as of September 2017 I estimate the taxi fare from the center of Seoul (Seoul station or the downtown palaces) to get here as 4,000 to 10,000 won depending on traffic.)

Now you need to turn right and go to the WEST, following  Nangye-ro 27-gil. it's not much of a road, more like a wide alley, but don't be fooled. Look at the Google maps road view below -- this is looking NORTH WEST from the intersection of Nangye-ro and Nangye-ro 27-gil. See that blue street sign in the center of the picture? That's what you are looking for. 

After maybe 50-100 meters you should find the store fronts that sell the stuff you want.

Here is a picture of the first one along the line, looking back towards the intersection you just left. It's the small store to the center right, with the silver car in front of it. 

This first store you see here is full of rivets, decorative and functional. Some map applications in Korea (for smart phones or computers) can use the phone number to locate the store on a map, and the phone number of this shop is 031-528-1626.

The other stores start west of this one. Google Maps streetview won't go down there, however. 

In my 15 minutes of looking I saw at least 3 stores FULL of rivets, grommets, etc. (HUGE bags of them, as well as small ones). One store had nothing but thread, thread, thread and more thread. Leather, buckles, tools, oh my!
One store had paint, more sizes of hole punches than I knew existed, needles, thread, templates, and 3 different kinds of stitching ponies (I bought one for 20,000 won).
I didn't go very far down the row, but I believe that skivers (big and small) and hides (including tooling) and elec

I saw very few stamping and tooling supplies. Lots of leather and hardware, thread and coloring, for bags, clothing, and the like. (skivers, head knives, needles, strap end templates and punches, stitching chisels, etc. 

Edited September 17, 2017 by DJole

[alpha2]

Fascinating! I wish I had one of those here in town.

[JayEhl]

Sorry for the reply on such an old post but when I ran across this after a search I was excited to know of something like this as I'm planning a trip late next April.  I've already lined up a visit to Dol Dokki and was hoping to know of other leather craftsman and/or tool makers, etc.  I'm only there for about 8 days so I want to be strategic about places that I'm able to visit given my time constraints.  If you have any other updates about specific tool makers or shops to visit, please let me know.  And I will also be sure to provide any additional information upon my return.    Thanks!  ~JL

[DJole]

On 3/19/2024 at 7:33 AM, JayEhl said:

Sorry for the reply on such an old post but when I ran across this after a search I was excited to know of something like this as I'm planning a trip late next April.  I've already lined up a visit to Dol Dokki and was hoping to know of other leather craftsman and/or tool makers, etc.  I'm only there for about 8 days so I want to be strategic about places that I'm able to visit given my time constraints.  If you have any other updates about specific tool makers or shops to visit, please let me know.  And I will also be sure to provide any additional information upon my return.    Thanks!  ~JL

I don't have any specifics about tool makers or shops, unfortunately. There are certain very skilled ateliers in the Seoul area, but not down in this part of town.  
I also didn't get a whole lot of time to really peruse the shops...the kids were on their last legs, so I really had to limit my time. ;-(

 

[NatesLeatherGds]

On 9/17/2017 at 12:22 AM, DJole said:

On a day outing in Seoul, we managed to find the neighborhood in the city where leatherwork supplies can be found. 

This is awesome!

[JayEhl]

I did find from Dol Dokki that is shop moved into Seoul.  I asked if he could let me know of any other makers in the area that I could visit (if allowed, of course) but I think that got lost in the translation.  I hope to maybe find something more and get time to peruse the shops.   I'll leave next week and I know this be a fun adventure and I'll try to remember to post here what I find out.

Peace!

~JL