RATTAN AND BAMBOO WEAVING IN PHU VNH VILLAGE
Known as a 400-year-old craft village, Phu Vinh village (Chuong My district), is famous for the sophisticated rattan and bamboo products with the hundred of models and types. The creativity and craftsmanship of the artisans here have created unique products with distinctive characteristics that cannot be found anywhere else are. Each rattan and bamboo product is a unique artwork, which requires the meticulousness and elaboration of talented craftspeople.
For a complete product, Phu Vinh craftspeople must first have a picky and skillful selection of raw material. After selecting the good bamboo and rattan, the artisans will come to the processes of plucking. Next, the material will be dried in straw smoke, or the sun to have a natural color which is safe and non-toxic to users. Then splitting the bamboo lath, which is a difficult technique, requiring skilled craftspeople. The bamboo laths can normally be split into small tubes or strips that can be used for different products. Although now there are the splitting machines, the artisans still have to pluck the bamboo laths to make them smooth and flat.
The sophisticated bamboo and rattan products in Phu Vinh village. (collected photo)
Thanks to the good materials, as well as meticulous and elaborate weaving, bamboo and rattan products of Phu Vinh village is the most popular selection for everyone. With creativity and love for traditional crafts, Phu Vinh artisans have created hundreds of different ways of weaving. Over time, there are many new materials, and product designs with high quality, which made the product is more expensive. The innovation to keep its reputation with customers is the combination of rattan and wood; rattan and metal. Especially, the ceramic wrapped by rattan – an unbeatable combination of Bat Trang ceramics and Phu Vinh bamboo and rattan weaving.
Portrait of Uncle Ho made of bamboo and rattan by artisan Nguyen Van Trung. (collected photo)
To satisfy the tastes of customers, Phu Vinh craftsman not only makes rustic household appliances such as baskets, trays, plates … but also cleverly created jewelry and products for tourism have high applicability such as tables, chairs, vases, lampshades. This innovation keeps bamboo and rattan weaving profession passing down through generations and creates a stable job for local labor. Facing the low power consumption in the domestic market, production process workshops, and many rattan and bamboo enterprises in the province have advertised their products to markets of Japan, China, and the United States, Spain, etc.
Everyone in the village, young or old, man or woman, weaves rattan and bamboo. It has been in their blood for generations. The main labor force is middle-aged women most of who are too old to work in factories. People usually say that bamboo and rattan clung to Phu Vinh villagers since they were born. Therefore, it is not surprising when seeing an elderly artisan guiding the next generations or a young child attentively focusing on weaving rattan after school.
Generations of craft villages keep the passion for traditional craft. (collected photo)
In 2002, Phu Vinh village was officially recognized as the traditional village of rattan and bamboo. With the determination of local artisans to preserve the traditional craft, the rattan and bamboo handicraft in Phu Vinh has hot the peak of art imbued with Vietnamese cultural identity.
By Duy Kien