Carpenters work day and night to 'breathe life' into horse mascots from wood salvaged after the floods.

TPO - Using logs salvaged after the flood season, carpenters in Cui Lu Village (Hoi An Ward, Da Nang City) have created unique wooden horse figurines to serve the market for the Lunar New Year of the Year of the Horse.

In the days leading up to Tet (Lunar New Year), the carving workshop in Cui Lu Village (Hoi An Ward, Da Nang City) is always bustling with the sounds of saws and chisels. In the fragrant atmosphere of wood, the craftsmen diligently sculpt wooden horse figurines to meet Tet orders for their customers. Photo: Giang Thanh

Each log is neatly arranged, waiting to be transformed into horses of countless shapes and forms. Inside the workshop, about a dozen carpenters are busy carving without rest. Each craftsman is responsible for a different stage, from selecting the wood blanks, creating the rough shape, carving the details, to sanding, finishing, and painting.

In that bustling atmosphere, Huynh Kim Tin (37 years old, a carpenter from Kim Bong village) focused on carving each small detail to create a complete horse head. The sound of the mallet striking the wood chisel was continuous, and soon, a wooden horse took shape.

According to Mr. Tin, these days, carpenters at the workshop are working continuously to produce goods for Tet (Lunar New Year). Wooden horse models with unique and novel styles are popular with customers, who are ordering them in large quantities. "From about two months before Tet, the carpenters have been focusing on carving wooden horses to serve the Tet market. Every day, we are constantly busy," Mr. Tin said.

The carpenters at the workshop all come from the 500-year-old Kim Bong carpentry village in Hoi An and are highly skilled. Previously, in the village, most carpenters only produced mass-produced wooden products for daily life. “However, at Cui Lu Village, the work requires more creativity, more difficult techniques, and a wider variety of designs to cater to the tastes of tourists . The carpenters don't just follow pre-existing molds; they are free to be creative and pour their emotions into each piece,” Mr. Tin shared.

According to Mr. Le Ngoc Thuan (founder of Cui Lu Village), the idea of ​​sculpting mascots began during the village's development with exhibitions of animal figures alongside artist Le Thiet Cuong . From there, creating mascots became a new creative space for the artisans, ensuring that each animal not only had a form but also a soul and a story.

From mid-year onwards, the Củi Lũ Village began conceptualizing and producing wooden horse figurines to serve the market during the Lunar New Year . To date, the craftsmen here have created approximately 20-30 models of wooden horse figurines with various shapes, forms, and details.

These include a collection of lacquerware sculptures of wooden horses with designs such as: mythical creatures, Giao Chi horses, armored horses, guardian horses, Saint Giong… as well as brightly colored wood carvings such as: elegant horses, green horses, prince horses…

"The most important thing when sculpting and creating wooden horse mascots is to capture the spirit of the horse – from its face and physique to its grace, ease, or strength. When you capture that 'spirit,' each artwork will tell its own story," Mr. Thuan shared.

In Vietnamese culture, the horse symbolizes perseverance, loyalty, and aspiration for success; therefore, Vietnamese people particularly like to bring horses into their homes. As a result, the market for wooden horse figurines is more vibrant than for other zodiac animals in previous Tet seasons.

This Lunar New Year, the Củi Lũ Village is producing several thousand wooden horse sculptures . Due to the high volume of orders, the workshop has stopped accepting new orders to focus on completing the products and delivering them on time to customers.

"Regarding materials, the logs salvaged during the flood season are usually used for large horse sculptures. For medium-sized and small products and decorative items, we prioritize using wood from short-rotation plantations such as mahogany and rubber trees to support local people in reforestation and the development of a sustainable forest ecosystem," Mr. Thuan said.

Source: https://tienphong.vn/tho-moc-ngay-dem-thoi-hon-linh-vat-ngua-tu-go-nhat-duoc-sau-lu-post1818053.tpo