Press Release: V2003021

Patrina MAK
Marketing Manager
pat@allcad.com

27 February 2003

A Korean discovers the Secrets of Embroidery at the
EC Punching School

The 1st Korean student attended a fascinating embroidery class at the EC Punching School in Switzerland. Mr. Lim learned, practiced and exported his own production into a fabric with incredibly fast progress. He claimed: “This was the perfect school for me to learn punching and gave me an invaluable experience to live in Europe. I got more than I expected; over 200% of my expectation.”

Mr. S. M. Lim, was the first Korean student of the punching school provided by Heinzle embroidery AG, Switzerland (a member of the Embroidery Connection). Lim obtained a Bachelor Degree with major in Engineering. He works in Hana Lace Company, an embroidery business of Lim’s family, for more than 2 years after his graduation. Hana Lace is an embroidery manufacturer in South Korea with various machine ranges including the brands of Saurer, Hiraoka, Pfaff and ZSK. Hana Lace has 30 workers managed by 3 team leaders, including Lim and his father. Most workers are hired from other Asian countries. For punching, Hana Lace actually out sources to a punching service provider.

Lim’s father is a very famous embroidery designer in Korea. In Hana Lace, Lim is responsible for Human Resources and Customer Services. As Lim is an engineer, he also takes care for the operation of the machinery to ensure that the processes are running smoothly on track. The Embroidery Connection was highly recommended to Hana Lace by their local agent. Lim was chosen to study at the EC Punching School in Switzerland because he is fluent in English and he is a fast learner.

Lim attended two punching classes: the Basic-class and the Advanced-class in Switzerland, which was held in May & Jun 2002 respectively. In the class, the Embroidery Connection provided a learning workflow for its students including the embroidery history, design, manual punching, digitizing, computer-aided punching with the ProLace Design & Punching system, machinery control & operation. The students were also given time for visiting fantastic attractions of Europe. Lim is a speedy learner. He had no knowledge and experience in manual punching, nor in punching with any other computer-aided punching systems. However, he managed to produce his art craft from the processes of design, punching and manufacturing on the fully equipped punching school within 3 days. Lim has his own computer and he claims that some of advanced machines are not available in Korea.

At the first day of the class, Mr. Günter Heinzle organized a local tour for the students to visit the "Appenzeller Volkskunde Museum" located at St. Gallen, Switzerland. The tour included the following students: Lim from Korea, Mr. Hashimoto from Japan and Miss Sirichan Sooksangkadis from Thailand. The purpose of this tour was to give the students a brief idea of what embroidery is, the history of embroidery and how embroidery is done manually etc. This gave the students some knowledge and imagination on the development of embroidery during 18th & 19th century.



In the punching class, Lim met friends from various countries, such as Japan, Turkey, France, Thailand and Italy. Lim is not only a quick learner but also a great helper in the class. He always gave help to other students as he could understand and apply the processes very fast. Due to his kindness, he has built very good friendships with other students during the learning period.
The Embroidery Connection understands that the students can be frustrated in the learning progress from many factors. Therefore beside the tuition has given by Mr. Günter Heinzle, the students divided into small groups, so that they could learn, practice and discuss with their partners in order to improve their skills and tactics.


ProLace is the major punching software in the learning progress of the school. At the beginning, Lim copied every single step from the tutor because he wanted to follow Mr. Heinzle’s footsteps in punching. After a short while, he was able to do the steps by himself and had only to ask the tutor to correct his errors. During the 2 months learning time, Lim went through more than 50 exercises with design and punching processes. Lim is a workaholic. Everyday he started to work at 9 a.m. and stayed till 9 p.m. He worked at least 12 hours per day, sometimes extending past midnight. He wanted to stay late to concentrate on his practice without interruption. He also wanted to discuss with the tutor personally in order to pick up special techniques quickly.

Lim met a close classmate, Mr. Hashimoto, a famous designer from Japan. Mr. Hashimoto has many years of experience in embroidery business. He discussed with Lim about different embroidery systems that he knew. Lim found that he is very lucky to know a good friend through the punching school, especially since they both are Asian. At the end of the class, Mr. Hashimoto invited Lim to visit his company in Japan.
Beside the Japanese classmate, Lim also met a lady from Turkey. As an international student, Lim not only studied academic lesson but also learned many languages from his classmates.

Lim was under much pressure during the class because besides learning, language was also a problem for the students. As all the students came from different countries, English was the common language for students. However, there were still many opportunities that the students found difficult to express themselves in English, and tended to use their mother tongue instead. Many funny stories occurred among the group as body languages were the only solution for them in some occasions.
To relieve the pressure, the Embroidery Connection organized many sight seeing programs for students. Lim visited the “Rolls-Royce Museum” the biggest museum of Rolls-Royce cars in the world. The three-storey exhibition center occupies approximately 3,000 square meters and displays Rolls-Royce cars built since 18th Century.

Beside studying in Switzerland, Lim also had the chance to visit Austria. The Embroidery Connection organized several hiking tours for Lim and the other students, e.g. to the Bödele and the Rappen & Alplochschlucht. Many seasonal flowers grow on the mountain and many fabulous pictures are captured in Lim’s memory. Lim also went to Schwarzenberg, a small village in Vorarlberg of Austria over his weekend.
Lim demonstrated his leadership quality in the group of students. He planned his free time during the weekend to travel around the European countries with other classmates. He visited Bern, the capital of Switzerland, Zürich, Schloss Ambras in Innsbruck Austria, Bregenz in Austria, Lindau in Germany as well as Lake Constance which is surrounded by Germany, Austria & Switzerland.



Lim found that Mr. Günter Heinzle is not only a tutor, but also a good friend & brother. He claimed: “Mr. Heinzle looked after me very well. He provided me with knowledge about lifestyle, European culture, European cuisine and sight seeing while he was staying in Europe.”
After the punching class, the Embroidery Connection organized a farewell party for Lim. More than 10 people from America, Mexico, Germany, Austria, Philippines, and Thailand joined the party. Therefore, Lim called this was a multi-national party. Before Lim went back to Korea, he also visited Rome in Italy to fulfilled one of his dreams. Almost 3 months in Europe, Lim learned many things and cherishes all the friendships he has built through the Embroidery Connection.