The adventures of 9X artisans from Quang Nam

Le Ngoc Duc makes paintings from agarwood. Photo: TRUONG SON

Bold turns

The day Le Ngoc Duc (currently residing in Tan Thanh ward, Tam Ky city) decided to leave the police force to embark on the risky path of agarwood trading, his mother could not hold back her tears.

During his time at school, this young man born in 1995 was always an excellent student. He became the pride of his family when he passed the entrance exam to the People's Security University and served in the industry for nearly 10 years.

“Someone said that 30 years from now, we will regret the things we didn’t do more than the things we did. The scent of agarwood enchanted me. So, although the decision to change course was difficult, I have no regrets,” Duc said.

Perhaps thanks to that burning passion, Le Ngoc Duc quickly became famous in the “agarwood playing” world. He soon succeeded with batches worth billions. However, Ngoc Duc always struggled with new handmade products, using agarwood as material.

A year ago, he had the opportunity to go to China to see an exhibition on agarwood and came up with the idea of using agarwood as a material for his paintings. Pieces of agarwood with natural shades from white, gray, brown to black were cut, trimmed, and pasted onto canvas to create portraits, such as: President Ho Chi Minh , General Vo Nguyen Giap, late General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong... making viewers admire.

Young artisan Nguyen Viet Lam talks about his journey to find the traditional eel skin glaze of Thanh Ha pottery village. Photo: TRUONG SON

Nguyen Viet Lam in Thanh Ha pottery village (Hoi An) also loves adventure but with clay and fire. To find the eel-skin glaze that has been lost for a century, the journey to find the secret was not easy for the 27-year-old artisan.

From his great-grandmother's story, Lam and his father quietly experimented with hundreds of batches of pottery, accepting failure after failure. After 6 years of pursuit, one day, the yellow glaze appeared on the rough ground, making Lam burst into tears. Mastering the ancient glaze, Lam also created unique and novel visual effects through outstanding glaze colors that still had a strong ancient style.

Choosing to start a business in his hometown, Tran Duy (28 years old, residing in Dien Phong commune, Dien Ban town) also had a surprising turn when he left the Hue University of Fine Arts to return to his hometown to begin the process of experimenting with wooden blocks.

Although he is the son of a famous wood carving artist in Go Noi, Duy did not follow the path of carving Buddha statues or mascots like his father. Duy chose to create characters from comics and movies, such as Goku, Naruto, Iron Man, Hulk... with sophisticated carvings. He also made groups of fighting statues, simulating large scenes in Avengers or heroic battles in the Anime world .

More interestingly, Duy and his craftsmen worked together on a project with Marvel Studios, carving 22 Marvel characters to create a special foosball table in nearly a month.

Keep the profession, live by the profession

“Thanks to my little talent in wood carving, it didn't take me long to carve round statues of characters from the world of comics, movies, etc. But my biggest obstacle was the ability to communicate in English.

I remember one time a group of Western tourists came to the workshop. The whole group of workers ran to find me because they believed that, as a young person, I would know English to communicate. But then, under everyone's expectant eyes, I just waved my hands and feet to "talk" to the customers. That feeling of helplessness made me determined to learn English again from the beginning. I put aside everything I had learned to start over. I opened a free homestay just to have more opportunities to practice speaking with foreign guests" - Tran Duy said.

Carpentry village boy Tran Duy has many international orders thanks to his unique statue-making skills. Photo: TRUONG SON

After a year of training, Duy was able to communicate fluently in English and confidently opened sculpture workshops at home for visitors to experience and learn. Realizing that his sculptures were suitable for the Western customer segment, Duy sought to promote his family's sculpture profession through social media platforms.

And he started his journey to learn more marketing skills, from filming and editing videos to SEO on Facebook, YouTube, TikTok... Thanks to creating content in English, large international orders came to him one after another. Duy also learned about international shipping and payment processes, and flew abroad many times to work and deliver goods to partners.

By applying digital technology to both sell and promote the value of agarwood, Le Ngoc Duc has successfully built the TikTok channel “Duc Hoc Tram” with more than half a million likes. Duc’s “tear-and-paste” agarwood paintings on canvas always create excitement for viewers.

In his clips, Duc, with his confident and eloquent demeanor, also leads lively journeys of discovery of agarwood, ky nam, etc.

Duc said that in the near future, he will complete a portrait of President Ho Chi Minh using agarwood and ky nam, which is expected to cost billions of dong. In the future, Duc aims to turn this type of painting into a diplomatic gift, a high-end souvenir product with the brand name "Duc's painting".

For young artisan Viet Lam, choosing to promote products on social media platforms to approach and attract customers to the land where the family pottery kiln is located on the Thu Bon River. Making pottery and glazing in the traditional way, but the approach to the market must be modern, to be able to both sell products and spread the values of Thanh Ha pottery village.

With that in mind, Viet Lam organized experiential workshops for visitors with unique forms of ceramic “fermentation”. What made Lam happiest was when receiving the finished ceramic vases, clay figurines, etc., the guests all praised the sophistication that far exceeded their initial imagination.

“I want tourists to know that Hoi An is not only famous for its red pottery but also for its luxurious glazed pottery, which is not inferior to anyone else. That is the goal that I always strive towards every day…” - Lam shared.

Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/cuoc-phieu-luu-cua-nhung-nghe-nhan-9x-xu-quang-3199966.html