"Traditional craftsmanship start-up" is a bold decision but has been chosen by many young people in the past time, both to satisfy their passion and to find their own happiness. Do not ask why they loved to do that because there will not be a specific reason, people simply do it as they like it, and because they want to preserve the beauty of their homeland's culture.
Changing the view at paper flower making
Phan Ngoc Hieu (1989), graduated in Foreign Trade from Danang University of Economics and worked in the banking sector, is such a case. Having great success in her career with a fairly stable income, Hieu gave up everything and started his own brand called Maypaperflower - Art paper flowers.
Showroom for paper flower art products by Maypaperflower
At her young age, the little Hieu was a person specially in love with plants and flowers. Wherever she went, she would stop "to admire" beautiful flowers she saw. With the youth associated with flowers, not exaggerate to say that her "art paper flowers" house is also one of the rare places which keeps the traditional craft filled with the ancient capital's culture.
It all started when the young girl came to Thanh Tien, the most famous art paper making village in Thua Thien Hue. However, with the age of more than 300 years, catching up and integrating with the trend of the new society has been always a challenge for a traditional art village.
The demand for paper flowers has been sharply decreased which led to a precarious and unstable income and made Thanh Tien unable to keep young people in the village. Those who remained living here are mostly elderly artisans or groups of students and seasonal students who earn extra money in their spare time.
Observing and realizing the potential of these paper flowers that has not been properly exploited, Hieu decided to try combining many other arts with the determination to bring traditional paper flower art making into the modern life. And so the combining art of " Paper Flower- Painting" was initially created. Paper art paintings are modern enough to be incorporated into home decoration products and sophisticated enough to highlight the artistic values of Hue.
Maypaperflower makes paper flowers containing contemporary art elements using new methods that turns old values closer to modern life. May always focuses in the quality of each flower she makes, meticulous and careful in each stage.
At the same time, the paper art painting products are made from environmentally friendly materials. Hieu wants her products can partly save energy and resources and lead to a harmonious lifestyle to respect for nature and be friendly to the environment so that everyone can have a beautifully safe, complete and sustainable "common home".
In 2020, Ngoc Hieu's paper flower project won the A prize in the innovation startup competition organized by Thua Thien Hue province. This milestone was very encouraging to the development of Maypaperflower after many trade-offs to get the initial success today.
Ngoc Hieu's paper flower project won the A prize in the innovation startup competition organized by Thua Thien Hue province
Talking about the first days of start-up, Ngoc Hieu shared that almost every step of the implementation had to be tinkered with because not a single school was opened to teach this new subject. All that she could do then is to observe closely the appearance of the flowers when in full bloom and show it with lines, cut and fold to make the most similar model.
Although being fortunate to have a talent in many arts as well as having a fresh flower shop that is convenient for simulating, it is not easy for her to create paper flower making in the early stages. She had to try and combine a lot of different methods, glues, paper materials and drawings to find the pros and cons.
It means that in order to have a finished product on sale on the market today, there have been many failed products that costed time and money. Fortunately, God does not disappoint her efforts, her products are not only loved by people in the Thua Thien Hue but also receive a lot of orders from different provinces in the country or even foreign contries.
"Embracing" the beauty of ancient culture
Many newspapers have written about the house full of paper flowers on the ancient capital, but not many people knew about the young founder's life. Just know that whenever talks about flowers, the girl's eyes shine. When making paper flowers, Hieu focus on the dexterity of her hands to gently do hand-crafted steps. The process helped her mind to relax without thinking and feel really at peace.
Portrait of Ms. Phan Ngoc Hieu - Founder of Maypaperflower
In the initial years when Hieu did not yet achieve success and still stuck in the loop of failure, try, fail and try again, all she could think of was the love for her product. She thought of the bouquets, paintings and gifts the customers gave to their lovers at the first meeting, of the gardens of the painter Monet, and then used that as the motivation for the work.
Wanderring in her imagination world is the only thing Hieu could rely on while Maypaperflower was still in its early stages and has not yet built any reputation. Over time, people became interested in the dreamy world of the young girl's paper flower art paintings. As more and more visitors come to Maypaperflower, the name of Hue traditional paper flower has also increased since then.
Paper art painting products, one of Maypaperflower's favorite products by customers
When thinking and looking back at the journey of most half a decade from the days of tinkering with each type of paper until the Maypaperflower applied artworks appeared in urban families in Thua Thien Hue, in gift packages sent to partners by customers, etc., Hieu had a little peace in her heart. But if one day, suddenly the old people in Thanh Tien Village no longer be, everything would then be in the past, but for those who missed the ancient capital, the long-standing rituals and cultural they would be upset.
That makes Hieu still ponder how to spread the "new wind" of paper flowers based on Hue culture and contemporary art to create many trendy products for paper flower arts at Thanh Tien in particular and Hue in general. Even if life changes and the ancient capital changes, there are not only mausoleums in Hue but also Hue people who "embrace" themselves with sacred cultural beauties.
Kieu Oanh
