Artisan Phan Thi Thuan (Phung Xa, My Duc, Hanoi ) is no longer a strange name when she has repeatedly made a name for herself with useful inventions about silk such as: The method of catching silkworms to weave silk blankets or being the first person in Vietnam to weave fabric with lotus silk.
Born into a family with a 4-generation tradition of weaving, from a young age she helped her family pick mulberries and raise silkworms, so her love for golden silk threads has permeated and stayed with her for over 70 years.
After more than 5 years of researching, developing and launching high-end lotus silk products to the market, Ms. Thuan's lotus silk brand has gradually been affirmed. Up to now, not only stopping at scarves, Ms. Thuan has also created many meaningful consumer products such as masks, towels, ao dai...
Artisan Phan Thi Thuan shared: “Lotus silk is a type of fabric woven from fibers pulled from lotus stems, which is often considered the “useless” part of the lotus plant. Due to the complexity and labor-intensive nature of weaving silk, this type of silk is considered one of the most expensive fabrics in the world . Because lotus silk goes through elaborate production stages and must be done entirely by hand, the most difficult of which is extracting the silk fibers from the lotus stems.”
Ms. Thuan said that after the lotus stalks are collected, they must be washed clean of mud and thorns. The cleaner the stalks are, the whiter and more beautiful the silk threads will be. To get the silk, you must use a knife to cut around the lotus stalks, then use your hands to twist and pull the silk, and at the same time roll the lotus silk threads into a round shape. This step must be done skillfully, without cutting too deeply or else the silk threads inside will break. The lotus silk threads are thin and easily broken, so you must be very skillful and meticulous to be able to extract the silk threads. In particular, all lotus stalks must be processed within 24 hours, otherwise the stalks will dry out, the silk threads will be pulled out and damaged.
Products made from lotus silk are durable, beautiful, cool and can be made into bags, book covers, home decorations... the most popular of which is still scarves. However, because all stages are done by hand, the price is quite high. For a 1.7m long scarf, the artisan needs 4,800 lotus stems, including the time to separate the silk and embroider the motifs, it takes more than 1 month to complete, so the current price of a lotus silk scarf ranges from 8 to 12 million VND.
At the Hue NTT Festival 2023, artisan Phan Thi Thuan's booth always attracts many visitors. Here, visitors not only admire famous hand-woven silk products but also experience the traditional "silk spinning and weaving" process of the craft village. "Going through many booths and watching artisans demonstrate their crafts, I was most impressed by the lotus silk weaving process of artisan Phan Thi Thuan. All the stages of creating lotus silk threads are meticulous and elaborate, so the lotus silk products are also unique and beautiful," said Ms. Nguyen Thanh Huyen, a tourist from Da Nang City.
According to Ms. Thuan, because of the high cost, lotus silk products are currently mainly made to order or to serve high-end customers and foreign customers. Not only creating soft silk threads, she also makes use of discarded lotus stems, contributing to reducing waste to the environment. With the increasing demand for enjoying high-quality products, lotus silk production not only helps to increase the economic value of lotus growing, while creating more jobs for villagers, but also creates high-end silk products to meet the needs of people, tourists and diversify the silk market with the brand name "made in Vietnam" in domestic and foreign markets.
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