Ms. Dung (Can Tho) “transformed” a monotonous cloth into colorful flowers that made everyone who saw it admire. The cost of each flower is more than a million dong but still not enough to sell.
Originally an art teacher at Thoi Hoa Secondary School (O Mon district, Can Tho), about 5 years ago, Ms. Tran Pham Phuong Dung (37 years old) started a side business making flowers from fabric. An unexpected turn helps female teachers have an attractive source of income.
In 2019, Ms. Dung learned and practiced making fabric flowers to decorate the house. According to the female teacher, the profession of making paper flowers has been around for a long time in Vietnam. The technique is not too difficult, but in order to have a start-up product that makes its own mark and is less susceptible to competition, she must diligently research methods of making fabric flowers. .
At first, Ms. Dung made burned fabric flowers. The technique was simple: using a lighter to shape the flower patterns. However, the products produced are not new, have few eye-catching colors, and cannot shape small flowers or many complex details.
After more than a year of making burned lychee flowers, Ms. Dung decided to switch to making highly technical dyed lychee flowers.
“Through researching online, I learned that in addition to burning flowers, there is also a way to make fabric flowers using a heater, but the online clips often do not give very detailed instructions. I had to synthesize from many sources, including clips teaching how to make flowers. of foreign artisans to learn from,” the Can Tho teacher said.
Ms. Dung confided that teaching takes up half of her day, so she takes advantage of evenings and weekends to make fabric flowers.
According to the female teacher, unlike flowers made from commonly available colored fabrics, dyed flowers are quite elaborate, going through many stages such as choosing fabric, processing fabric, choosing color, dyeing, and shaping the petals. ..
Ms. Dung often uses dyed white fabric, cuts it into petal shapes, then uses a soldering iron to create the petal veins and curvature as desired. Simply put, but to make nearly 50 samples of roses, orchids, peonies, dahlias… like the present, it took the female teacher many months.
“Because it’s handmade, there’s no template but only the shape in your head, so from the color combination to the flower shape, it’s not 100% the same as the previous flowers. Therefore, the product is completely unique.” Ms. Dung said.
It is known that the 8X teacher’s flower samples will be made into products such as corsages, dresses, bridal hair pins, decorative flower pots, flower paintings, night lamps… Each work takes from 5 to 5 minutes to complete. 8 hours.
Starting her business 5 years ago, Ms. Dung has now made thousands of flower designs from simple to complex. Currently, she mainly makes orders, selling more than 100 burned flower products and dyed fabric flowers each month. The selling price of burned flowers ranges from 100,000 to 200,000 VND/flower, while art fabric flowers cost from 500,000 to 800,000 VND/product (depending on difficulty and time to make).
In addition to making fabric flowers, Ms. Dung also creates 3D butterfly and bird models from fabric. Thanks to that, it also brings her a decent monthly income.
“Burned flowers can produce a maximum of 20-30 flowers per day, but fabric-dyed flowers can only be made from 1 to 3 flowers/day. Therefore, burned flowers and dyed flowers will have a different customer segment. Usually, fabric-dyed flowers are ordered more by designers, fashion companies, wedding companies, etc.,” Ms. Dung added.
In addition to flower making, the female teacher also spreads her passion to those who love fabric flower making through online flower making classes.
“I want to spread the passion and value of artistic fabric flowers closer to young people. I hope that the experience of making flowers will not only help satisfy your passion, but also when looking at the blooming flowers made by When you do it, you will feel happy and relaxed,” Ms. Dung confided.
($1=24,000 VND)
Photo,Video: Internet (Vinlove.net)