The aodai laps flutter gently in the wind, girls with long black hair holding in their hands a conical hat are symbolic images that send people back to the ancient capital of Hue. A young man from Hue, who is ambitious to change a new image combining of simplicity and sophistication for the traditional hat, spent time learning and researching to come up with the conical hat made of lotus leaves.
Nguyen ThanhThao (born 1988, in Huong So Ward, Hue City, ThuaThien Hue Province) graduated from the Department of Graphic Arts – Hue University of Fine Arts. He won the A Award in the ThuaThien Hue Innovative Technotrepreneur Contest with this product. During the recent Hue Traditional Festival, his lotus leaves conical hat gained a lot of attention and love from visitors. To achieve current achievements, this young man has to go through many difficulties and challenges.
Artist Nguyen ThanhThao – creator of the lotus leaves conical hat
Carried inside his heart is a vehement passion for traditional art. He is always deeply into changing and working to create handmade products from home-made materials. Taking a long time for learning and researching, he has tried his best and devoted all for the desire of bringing his products to more domestic and foreign tourists
Lotus leaves conical hats displayed at Hue Festival 2018.
To make this lotus leaves hat unique and popular like nowadays, artist Nguyen ThanhThao shared that it took him approximately one year to experiment on the lotus leaves, and use hundreds of lotus leaves. He even fell into despair when it seemed impossible to get a better result. However, because of his passionate fire and relentless creativity, finally, the delicate conical hats made of lotus leaves were born, leading him to success as desired.
Lotus leaves after being dried
According to Thao, to make a perfect lotus leaves conical hat, a lot of stages have to be gone through. Firstly, the raw materials must be fresh lotus leaves which are carefully selected, then soaked in Javel, dried, and ironed until straightened. To keep the natural green color and create durability when the hat exposed to the rain and sunlight, it is covered with protective paint. After being stitched, a lotus leaves conical hat that is born with the venations to appear clearly and delicately on the layer of bright green color makes many people love at first sight.
Stitching the hat requires meticulous and skillful hands.
The frame of a lotus leaves hat.
After being dried, the lotus leaves are stitched to make a hat.
Self-blending paint for protecting the hat.
Lotus leaves conical hats by artist Nguyen ThanhThao are highly appreciated for their high quality and aesthetics, so at Hue Traditional Craft Festival 2019, many tourists enjoyed visiting his display stall. Although the price of each hat is 250,000 VND which is higher than other normal ones, many tourists feel satisfied buying this interesting product. “I see lots of usual conical hats, but this time visiting Hue gives me a chance to see a hat made of lotus leaves with very eye-catching color and style. They impressed me from the first sight”, shared Nguyen Thanh, a tourist.
Other lotus leaves handicraft products
Lotus leaves conical hats displayed at a Provincial Conference
Creative passion and enthusiasm for art have brought this young Hue man to his desired success. At the present, artist Nguyen ThanhThao is still trying to develop more handicraft products made of lotus leaves such as bags and paintings. Those achievements have contributed to the developing tourism of ThuaThien Hue and marked a good impression on other countries around the world about the ancient capital of Hue.