"Gilded" life of an artisan in 600-year-old craft village

Artisan Nguyen Van Trong, who is one of the oldest artisans in gold laminating craft, has expressed his pride and concern over the disappearance of traditional culture.

Artisan Nguyen Van Trong (Photo: Pham Minh Ha)

Carver Of Dreams: The magic from the first day

Artisan Nguyen Van Trong (58 years old) was born in Kieu Ky craft village, Kieu Ky commune, Gia Lam district, Hanoi city. He has been constantly researching, creating, and finding his own path for the gold laminating, which is a traditional craft. It has been associated with Kieu Ky village for the past 600 years.

In 1993, the government had a policy to restore historical sites, temples, and pagodas so he decided to pursue the gold laminating craft. He realized that the gold laminating craft should be preserved. He thought that this was an opportunity to maintain and develop the traditional gold and silver craft of forefathers.

Artisan Nguyen Van Trong introduces gold laminating craft and related products

(Video: NewsConnect)

Achievements in his career path

During his career, he has gained certain achievements. In 2001, he appeared in the book “Beautiful flowers”. In this book, he shared interesting things when he first made products. In addition, he was awarded the certificate of merit and trophy with the title: “Hanoi artisan in 2017”. During that time, those awards seemed to give him strength and motivation to continue the gold laminating craft.

The artisan’s achievements in 2001 (left) and 2017 (right) (Photo: Pham Minh Ha)

“Such a difficult time of my life”

Experiencing days of struggling with little capital and the lack of skilled workers, Mr. Trong realized that it was his love for hometown guiding him to persevere and contribute to the name of the only gold laminating village in Vietnam.

Recalling the early days of career, Mr. Trong said: “Such a difficult time of my life”. The artisan continued: “Gold leaf making is a sophisticated work, so it is hard to cover a smooth and shiny golden coat on my final products. Therefore, I could not sell my first “spiritual children”, but kept them as a gift for my parents.”

The stage of gold leaf beating - one of the most demanding tasks (Video: NewsConnect)

Some of his favorite products are kept at his house (Photo: Pham Minh Ha)

However, these days, there are numerous types of gold laminating products made of fake gold which are detrimental to traditional workers. The handmade gold leaves from real gold and silver, only have one fixed size (about 4.2*4.2 cm). Besides, there are only two colors of gold and silver.

Meanwhile, fake gold leaves have a larger variety of sizes because they are made by modern machines, the colors are also more diverse and especially the price is 30 times cheaper than the real thing. The fake gold leaves are made delicately, only experienced artisans can distinguish them.

Fake (left) and real (right) gold leaves (Photo: Pham Minh Ha)

Challenges are shaped into cheer

In recent years, he has temporarily stopped participating in home production activities since he is worried about his family. Now, his two sons are both married, if he continues to work, the whole family will have a hard time. He still keeps his love and enthusiasm for this profession. Although he no longer works at home, he is still willing to teach and pass on the knowledge and skills that he has accumulated over the last few decades to anyone who wants to learn.

Preserving gold laminating craft - a great challenge

The process of preserving and developing traditional craft villages is posing new challenges. In the fear of losing gold laminating craft, it becomes more urgent to keep the craft village more than ever. With the desire that the younger generations will follow and stick with the gold laminating craft, artisan Nguyen Van Trong dedicates all his enthusiasm and love to teach the traditional profession for free to those who have passion.

Mr. Trong expressed: “I just wish that people of Kieu Ky village will always preserve this traditional craft of the village so that next generations can continue to create many unique products, elevate Vietnamese gold laminating products to a new level”.

With his great dedication to the gold laminating craft, artisan Nguyen Van Trong deserves to be a role model for next generations to follow.

On March 9, the gold laminating craft was recognized as a national intangible cultural heritage by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. This craft was founded by artisan Nguyen Quy Tri in Kieu Ky village in the 17th century. In addition, he only passed down for locals. Therefore, keeping traditional know-how is one of the strict requirements for craftsmen. Perhaps because of that, Kieu Ky is still the only craft village in Vietnam that produces gold and silver leaves.