hai duong EMBROIDERY PROJECT
In embroidery craft villages in rural Vietnam, traditional techniques with strong and expressive technical skills are becoming scarce. Therefore, we are looking for project partners who can help us create jobs for female craftsmen and to preserve and maintain traditional embroidery techniques.
STORY
Rural Areas Lagging Behind in Economic Development
Vietnam, which introduced a market-oriented economy under the Doi Moi Policy implemented in 1986, has shown high economic growth in recent years.
In Vietnam, the average age of the population is 28 years old, and the working population represents the majority of people. Meaning that in the future, economic development is expected to continue. Although Vietnam is experiencing significant economic growth, there is still a large gap in development between urban and rural areas, and the predominant concentration of workers in urban areas slows the improvement in living standards in rural areas.
Hải Dương Province is located between the capital city of Hanoi, the port city of Hai Phong, and the world-famous tourist destination city of Ha Long Bay. Hải Dương is a province where many foreign companies' factories are located as it is an important transportation hub, and is 1.5 hours by car from Hanoi. While young people work in foreign-owned factories in the province, older women and people in rural areas are lagging behind urban development.
Hải Dương village was a prosperous village with an embroidery industry. However, the industry experienced a decline after industrialization, automation and globalization, and many craftswomen stopped embroidery to find work in other fields.
With the development of the country's economy, the environment has also changed, and in some agricultural villages, the lifestyle passed down from generation to generation based on "embroidering" gradually collapsed.
“I love making beautiful dresses and shirts with delicate, detailed embroidery.”
“I love making beautiful dresses and shirts with delicate, detailed embroidery.” Those are the words of a woman who was born in an embroidery village and grew up learning embroidery from her parents and grandparents. If she left the village and went to work in a factory in the city, she would be even wealthier financially than she was currently in.
However, living away from her children and family is not a happy lifestyle she wants. She chose to stay in her home village and live from embroidery.
Family, life, pride as a woman in the village, lifestyle traditions that have been passed down, and many other things that they value are included in the embroidery of Hải Dương.
Hải Dương embroidery charm
Point 1. Appropriate expressive power and reproducibility with painstaking attention
The intricate and beautiful embroidery was made with great care, one stitch at a time, and over long periods of time.
Hải Dương embroidery can use many colored threads and reproduces bright colors like a painting.
Point 2. Excellent technical skills for double-sided embroidery
Traditionally, embroidery is assumed to be viewed from one surface, but
double-sided embroidery allows you to see beautiful patterns from
both the front and back. This technique is applied to silk and sheer lace.
Part 3. Do embroidery with “feelings” rather than as a “work”
Since ancient times, village women have embroidered handkerchiefs and pillowcases for loved ones to convey their feelings. So does children, they embroider cute birds and little flowers to convey their feelings.
For village women, embroidery is an important job that supports their lives, besides that it is also a means of communication to convey their feelings. And they dream of connecting with the people of the world through embroidery. This creates a three-dimensional effect and a sense of dynamism, and brings the product to life.
Product image
It is possible to embroider on various products such as handkerchiefs, curtains and other cloth products, clothes as well as accessories such as bags and umbrellas.
Since 2007, MPKEN has been cooperating with local vocational training facilities in Vietnam.
We have provided free embroidery technology programs to women who tend to be left behind in economic development.
We ask for your cooperation in creating jobs for women who have acquired skills, improving the lives of rural areas, and passing on traditional techniques.
