Working all night, "sweating and crying" to earn 1 million VND

In the days before Tet, Phu Loc bronze casting village (Dien Khanh district, Khanh Hoa province) is burning all night long, making bronze products such as incense burners, lamp stands, and other worship items to sell at the end of the year.

This is one of the few craft villages officially recognized by King Tu Duc as a traditional craft village, with sophisticated quality products.

Many bags of scrap copper are bought for 100,000-150,000 VND/kg, gathered at the copper foundry. Workers carefully sort them to avoid impurities before putting them into the high temperature furnace to melt.

"Usually after casting the product, the mass loss is about 20%," said Mr. Duy (in the photo).

Scrap copper is heated in a furnace for hours, until it reaches more than 1,000⁰C, liquefying. The worker continuously pours more copper into the furnace and removes impurities to obtain a batch of pure copper.

"It's hot! My face burns because the furnace is very hot. But if you choose this job, you have to stick with it to make a living," said Thanh, a bronze casting worker.

Terracotta molds are crafted by skilled craftsmen in Phu Loc.

Once the bronze is liquefied, the caster quickly scoops it into ladles and takes it to waiting molds.

The worker puts a wet cloth on the newly molded product to reduce the temperature.

In about 2 minutes, a bronze product is cast from the furnace.

Mr. Tran Minh Lam said that bronze casting work is usually done at night because the weather is cooler and more pleasant. A shift has about 10 people, lasting 10-12 hours with a salary of 1 million VND/night.

"It takes about a month or more for us to cast a batch of bronze and earn 1 million VND/night. During the day, I mainly do cold bronze (processing to beautify and attach newly cast bronze products into a complete set - PV), earning 300,000-350,000 VND/day," said Mr. Lam.

Within 1 hour, a group of 2 workers produced about 30 bronze casting products.

The raw copper products are then brought to skilled craftsmen in Phu Loc to be polished and shaped to make them eye-catching.

Products are polished before being sold on the market.

A complete set of worship items includes 2 candlesticks, a bronze incense burner, 2 water cups and a fruit plate, priced around 5-6 million VND/set.

Mr. Nguyen Van Nhuong, Director of Phu Loc Bronze Casting Cooperative, said that currently in Phu Loc there are 18 households still engaged in bronze casting.

"Every year, the cooperative sells about 1,000-1,200 sets of exquisite bronze products to the market. However, this year sales are quite sluggish, only reaching about 70% compared to previous years," said Mr. Nhuong.

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