Hanoi girl 'breathes life' into traditional handmade paper

03/24/2024 | 06:19

TPO - Knowing about traditional handmade paper by chance, 9x girl Doan Thai Cuc Huong was quickly attracted and soon cherished the desire to develop and preserve traditional types of paper such as Do paper, Duong paper, Nhuoi paper,... bringing traditional handmade paper art closer to contemporary life.

In the era of rapid technological development, many types of industrial paper are competing to be born with many eye-catching designs and forms. These types of industrial paper quickly won the hearts of consumers. Traditional handmade paper such as Do paper, Duong paper, etc. are at risk of being lost. Many artisans and craftsmen have made constant efforts to revive the traditional paper art, making traditional paper more popular in life.

9x girl Doan Thai Cuc Huong is one of many craftsmen who are trying to make traditional paper more popular. Huong was introduced to products made from traditional Vietnamese paper when she attended a dried flower pressing class: "I have a strong passion for traditional paper. My love started when I participated in a workshop on making dried flowers on paper. When I held a piece of Do paper, I exclaimed, "Oh, how can Vietnam have such a beautiful paper?". The rough, dark-colored paper with unique patterns attracted me."

"After studying, I began to learn more and realized that the application and diversity of this traditional paper are still limited as well as the sophistication is not high. Moreover, young people today are also not interested in traditional values ​​and folk art, so I have been struggling and nurturing the desire to bring traditional art forms closer to everyone. With the encouragement of friends, in 2021 I began to research and create products applied on traditional paper," Cuc Huong added.

The first product Huong made was a flower lantern. When she finished, she found it beautiful and when she hung it up, her friends complimented and encouraged her to continue making it, so Cuc Huong started making more and introducing her products to more people. From there, she got her first orders for this traditional art paper.

As an English teacher, she did not study fine arts, but her family's long history of making handicrafts has helped Huong a lot. Her father is a famous carpenter and is very skillful. Perhaps Huong also inherited her father's artistic hands, so from a young age she had a talent for drawing and designing unique handicrafts.

Each product Cuc Huong makes has its own story associated with the culture of each region or each period. Through that, we both restore the national culture and create more to suit contemporary life. "To make a product, the time to come up with the idea is the longest. From the shape, the size ratio must be balanced and certain before we can start making it because if it is done wrong, it will be difficult to fix it. Up to now, the Bodhi leaf bone inlaid notebook product is the product that took Huong the longest time to think about and make, about 4 months," Cuc Huong said.

The products made from traditional Vietnamese paper materials are like a shop of childhood memories because there are lanterns, palm-leaf fans, folding fans, notebooks sewn from curtain fabric to hang at the head of the bed of the Thai ethnic people. But this grocery store also has a modern color with products such as night lights, table lamps, envelopes, invitation cards, etc.

“Near Tet, many businesses and individual customers buy more decorations than usual. We often have waves of customers like each Vietnamese holiday. At the beginning of the year, people often buy a lot of fans to take pictures in traditional costumes or ao dai, or to go to the pagoda, or buy them as accessories. Then photographers buy them to take pictures for customers, especially at the beginning of the year on March 8, people will buy a lot to give to women in organizations...” – Doan Thai Cuc Huong shared.

"The finished lampshade products will cost from several hundred thousand dong to several million dong depending on the product," Doan Thai Cuc Huong shared.

In the future, the 9x girl hopes to be able to develop her products more widely domestically and hopes to spread to the international market.

Lam Thuy Duong

Source: https://tienphong.vn/co-gai-ha-thanh-thoi-hon-giay-thu-cong-truyen-thong-post1622471.tpo