Preserving and developing the traditional embroidery craft in Thanh Ha
Thanh Ha Commune, Thanh Liem District has long been known for its traditional lace embroidery craft. Over the centuries, the people here have maintained the craft with products serving domestic consumption and export.
Thanh Ha Commune currently has about 400 people working in lace embroidery, mainly concentrated in An Hoa and Hoa Ngai villages with many households producing and trading lace embroidery and handicrafts on a large scale. According to the commune’s existing documents, the lace embroidery craft in Thanh Ha appeared more than a century ago. Up to now, the whole commune has 4 artisans and 33 skilled workers recognized by the Council for Appraisal and Selection of Artisans and Skilled Workers of the Provincial People’s Committee. The products of the craft village are very rich in types and diverse in designs such as bed sheets, tablecloths, bags, pillows, embroidered paintings, etc. In general, the lace embroidery production and trading establishments here are small-scale, mainly family businesses. All workers, young and old, can participate in production from purchasing raw materials to cutting, printing, embroidering and finishing the product. There are also some families that accept processing (by stage or the entire production process) to create intermediate or finished products for private enterprises, LLCs, etc.
Looking at Thanh Ha workers at work, everyone thinks that embroidery is simple, just need to move the needle up and down and it’s done, but on closer observation, we can see that embroidery requires meticulousness, meticulousness and dexterity. Starting from the stage of drawing the patterns to be embroidered on paper, then carving them into a thin mica sheet. To embroider beautifully, the carving must first be beautiful, then the worker takes the pattern printed on the mica sheet and places it on the fabric, then uses ink to sweep it over to leave a mark on the fabric before embroidering. When the embroidery process is completed, the products will be carefully checked again, then washed and packaged. Previously, all stages were done manually. Nowadays, the village has also applied technology to production, especially the use of computerized embroidery machines.