Completely handmade from natural lotus leaves, the young man from Hue has woven a unique conical hat that was famous throughout Vietnam.
From the traditional beauty
Unique and novel ideas were always capable of making our lives diversified and more colorful; and painting was one of them. As for the common conical hats, they were made from palm leaves, corypha leaves, straw, bamboo, etc... Mr. Nguyen Thanh Thao (Thua Thien Hue) created lotus conical hats that made people fall in love at first sight because of its natural colors, fancy layouts and moreover, they were both very rustic but exuded a sophisticated look, which not everyone could do the same thing.
Beautiful lotus leaves were selected and processed before making hats.
The achieved reputation and specific characteristics of Hue conical hats were thanks to the conical hat making profession in Thua Thien Hue, which has inherited the reasonable elements of conical hats, from the royal court to the folk, from the North to the South, to create products unique to this region. To create a conical hat was not easy, and to create a hat made of lotus, the hardwork was multiplied many times.
At the beginning of summer, when the lotus ponds in Thua Thien land bloomed the most beautifully, this was also the time when Mr. Thao began to choose materials to make unique conical hats.
As a son of Hue land, which was famous for the traditional craft of making conical hats, fond of the job was to "love the profession", Mr. Thao found that the traditional profession, although it retained the culture for many generations, but it had to compete alot with imported goods and must have a new development direction. If you could not sell in quantity, you must find high-value products in terms of quality.
In 2017, Mr. Thao started researching how to make conical hats with lotus. Over time embarking on experiments with many failures, the lotus leaves began to be "tamed" and became the raw materials for making conical hats having a future development.
Not conical hat products were simply known because of the special material which was lotus leaves, but here were Mr. Thao, who came from a street painter having a lot of experience in fine art activities, has also painted on it delicate lines and images typical of the ancient capital of Hue on each product he created.
Each lotus leaf conical hat had a different pattern and therefore becoming "unique".
Transformed into a lotus leaf conical hat
After choosing beautiful lotus leaves, Mr. Thao proceeded to treat the leaves by soaking the leaves with javel water, followed by drying the leaves, straightening the leaves to facilitate the process of thatching leaves in the next stage. In addition, in order to keep the natural green color of lotus leaves and create durability when the hat was exposed to the sun and rain, Mr. Thao added a layer of protective paint on the leaves to help create freshness and preserve the leaves better.
The process of thatching leaves required a harmonious connection between the needle line and the worker's hand to arrange each lotus leaf on the hat frame so that there was no part in too thick and thin.
Each lotus leaf conical hat had a different pattern and therefore becoming "unique".
"I chose to make lotus leaf conical hats for two reasons. First, I especially loved conical hats, but I also loved lotus very much, it was something familiar to every child of Hue and I was no exception. Second, I loved creating new things from old ones, I loved painting, so this was also an opportunity for me to create in my own way."- Mr. Thao shared.
Each lotus leaf was like the personal unique fingerprint, no leaf was similar to the another. Therefore, when making art, it was like a unique work. That was why the lotus leaf conical hat named "Sen Thao" was getting closer and closer to those who loved the old beauty.
Mr. Thao has been gradually bringing Hue products across the country through many different sales methods in order for customers to feel the product lines more clearly, therefore Sen Thao has brought its products through exhibitions and seminars on fine art products across the country.
It has borne fruit when Mr. Thao decided to bring a lotus leaf conical hat to compete at startup competitions in Hue. Effort, sweat and creative ideas have been successfully transformed with the awards " The innovation startup competition 2018- A prize", "Vote for typical products at Hue Traditional Craft Festival 2019- Third prize", "The 10th Technical Innovation Competition of Thua Thien Hue province in 2020 - First prize".
“Sen Thao” lotus conical hats were well received by many domestic and foreign customers.
The initial results that Sen Thao has achieved were the resonance of love, hard work and especially the policies and orientations of the goverment that always focused on, maintained and preserved valuable traditional professions of the nation.
The deeper we investigated, the more we saw that in life as well as in art, Hue hats always had a strong vitality. No matter in what space it appeared, the hat still conveyed the spirit of the countryside and the strong domestic scent of the traditional craft villages where it was born.
The idea of making conical hats from lotus really touched the hearts of many people because it was not merely a sunshade and rain cover, it also carried the subconscious of conical hats and the subconscious of lotus leaves, as if carrying a length of cultural history of the ancient capital.
