Ms. Nguyen Thi Van (born in 1978, Hanoi ) is a kindergarten teacher in a suburban district. In class, she often teaches children to make paintings from sand grains, pebbles, beans... Later, she discovered that paintings made from rice grains would be sharper and more vivid. So, she researched how to make paintings and create colors from rice grains. The first work Ms. Van made for the school to auction for charity to support poor children in Phu Lo commune (Soc Son district) in 2016 was loved and asked to buy by many people. From then on, she decided to start a business by creating paintings from rice grains.
One of many popular paintings created from roasted rice grains by Ms. Van's skillful hands.
Starting from zero, however, with passion and determination, she researched and practiced to create products that suit the tastes of users. After many experiments, Ms. Van discovered that roasting rice by hand to color the rice grains, although it takes a lot of effort and time, the rice grains are durable and non-toxic. Depending on the level and time of roasting with gas stove heat, the rice grains will have a color ranging from dark to light. Roasting for 30 minutes, the rice grains will have a yellowish white color. Rice grains with a shiny black-brown color must be roasted for 5-6 hours. The most difficult and time-consuming task is to create dark black rice grains - more than 7 hours of roasting on a gas stove. According to Ms. Van, when roasting, the heat must be kept moderate, too small a fire will make the rice dull, too big a fire will cause the rice to burn and explode.
Depending on the time and roasting technique, different colors of rice grains are created.
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“A hundred good things are not as good as a practiced hand. In fact, roasting rice requires delicacy, sensitivity and experience in feeling the color of the roasted rice grains. Therefore, not everyone can roast rice,” said Ms. Van. Vietnam has many different rice varieties, each of which produces rice grains with different shapes and sizes. The type of rice Ms. Van often uses is long, slender, firm, shiny. When she needs to highlight the patterns, she uses rounder, larger grains. After sketching the painting on a 1cm thick wooden board, Ms. Van applies milk glue to the surface of the painting. The most difficult step is picking up each grain of rice and arranging it along the outline of the drawing in the painting, then attaching it to the painting. Depending on the layout and image, she chooses different rice grain tones. Just like that, the rice painting artisan must be very patient, meticulously arranging each grain of rice until the painting is completed.
Ms. Van shared that she can make a small rice painting in one day. However, for large paintings measuring 120x90cm with many details and lines, it takes her months to arrange 3kg of roasted rice.
After that, Ms. Van uses a glass plate to place on the surface of the painting, tapping lightly to spread the rice grains evenly and flatly. Next, she applies a special colorless and odorless glue to fix the rice grains. The finished painting is dried to increase its shine, and is painted with a protective layer to increase the longevity of the painting before being framed. Each roasted rice painting has a transparent mica frame, which is durable for up to 7 years. "In fact, the rice paintings from the first day I made them until now still retain their original color and durability," Ms. Van said.
The themes in Ms. Van's paintings are often beautiful landscapes, countryside paintings, famous landmarks and historical relics of Vietnam such as One Pillar Pagoda, Turtle Tower, Temple of Literature - Quoc Tu Giam, Hoan Kiem Lake, or paintings of graceful Vietnamese girls in Ao Dai...
Later, to meet the needs of players, Ms. Van researched how to dye rice grains to create beautiful portraits and flower paintings.
According to Ms. Van, making paintings from rice grains is also a way to inspire love for the homeland for young people. Through rice paintings, Ms. Van introduces Vietnam to international friends in a new style. Because they are completely handmade, each painting is unique. With the same theme, each painting has its own beauty. The price of rice paintings also varies from a few hundred thousand to tens of millions of VND and is available in many countries around the world such as Germany, Argentina, Thailand, Philippines... Photos, clips: Provided by the character