Hand crafted Vietnamese dragons made from new and vintage fabrics
I have resisted heading this post Vietnamese hand crafted animals as whenever I’ve included the word ‘Vietnamese’ in the title of a post I’ve attracted lots of spam comments, very few of which seem to have anything to do with Vietnam. (See here for Vietnamese skirts and land mine clearance, here for Vietnamese ceramics and here for Vietnamese reverse appliqué, if you are interested.)
Vietnamese hand crafted dragon showing vintage hand embroidery
People who’ve followed this blog will know that daughter No 2 is country director for MAG Vietnam (MAG is the acronym for the Mines Advisory Group, an NGO involved in the clearing of unexploded ordinance worldwide). She has been in Vietnam for about 3 years and as her work takes her to many distant and isolated regions she has come to know where to find the best of local crafts. The handmade animals in this post are a fascinating combination of modern and vintage fabric. The cross stitch embroidery probably comes from remnants of the beautiful skirts which I talked about in the first of the posts mentioned above and it is delightful that the good bits of fabric have taken on a second life as these fanciful creatures.
Hand crafted Vietnamese monkey made from modern fabric and vintage cross stitch embroidery.
Daughter No 3 spent a couple of months with her sister in Vietnam this summer and their new nephew provided the perfect excuse for them to indulge in buying some of the toy animals in the pictures. I’m not sure I should call them toys as although they are beautifully made I don’t know how the eyes for example are attached and I have already had to sew a bit of stuffing back into the puppets paws. But, never mind, they should look wonderful on a top shelf until the bouncing baby is old enough to stop trying to chew everything.
Hand crafted hand puppets made from new and vintage textiles
Hand crafted Vietnamese hand puppets in new and vintage textiles
Vietnamese hand puppets made from vintage and new fabric: detail of hand embroidered heads
Bouncing baby thought the puppets were great fun and as there’s no room on his top shelves, they are now sitting looking very much at home on a couple of bottles of nice wine behind the drinks tray.
4 Comments
Wonderful, colourful post! Thank you once more for domestic and cultural glimpses into the lives and countries inhabited and explored by you and your fascinating family. This comment also includes your own domestic and cultural life of course, which is equally if not more fascinating, but the sentence was becoming rather top heavy…
I’m glad you enjoyed the post. Vietnam seems a fascinating place and my daughter is very fortunate to do a job that enables her to experience a country which, thought modernising at a furious pace, is still culturally very interesting. I think the textiles are very special and although they now make a lot for western markets, they seem to still value traditional crafts and what we would call vintage clothes and fabrics.
Such joyful colourful little animals made by many nimble fingers…… On a completely different note I now have a bound hoop and have taken the first tentative stitches into the stem of a Jacobean flower. The thread makes a rather pleasant noise – quite soothing. I hope the little one is sleeping well for you and that if he does awake he settles easily……
Glad you have your frame now and that sewing is soothing – it should be.
No broken nights now and much fun when he’s awake.