Special workshop from corn husks. Photo taken before the outbreak of COVID-19
Do It Yourself
This is the movement where each individual creates or repairs a product based on his or her own creativity. Le Thanh Hai, who comes from Quang Dien has approached this trend for the past 3 years.“Usually people confuse DIY with handmade products, but the names themselves clearly show the difference between the two types,” said Hai.
Although they all mean creating products by themselves, while handmade are just small and simple handmade products, DIY is the creativity based on making new or repairing using hands, knowledge, and machine’s help.
“Therefore, DIY products can be made from any material. They can be as big and heavy as tables, chairs, swings, mini wooden houses or tiny ones, but they need to be processed very meticulously like paintings, keychains or bracelets," Thanh Hai added.
Flower products from corn husks
Around the world, this trend is increasingly popular, many Facebook pages and YouTube channels specializing in DIY attract hundreds of thousands to millions of followers. Imported into Vietnam, the charm of DIY is still extremely "hot".
In the days of implementing social distancing, many people choose DIY as a form of healthy entertainment. This both promotes health with physical actions such as sawing, chiseling, gluing and relieves stress and creates items which are beautiful, strange DIY products that match their own styles.
Finding joy
Working at a unit related to conservation and promotion of cultural values, Dinh Vu, born in 1985, said: “I know and come to DIY because of my passion. And this passion is growing when my work helps me to regularly access new and creative handmade products. Therefore, I am very happy no matter how much effort it takes to recycle, chisel and complete my self-made items."
DIY house model for puppies
In the last three months, temporarily having to quit his job due to the complicated pandemic situation, Dinh Vu focused on this second passion. He managed to make tables and chairs, lamps, and boats. Especially, this 8X man chose bamboo as the main material for the items that he designed himself.
He said: "In addition to the love for bamboo, a close and familiar tree, to me, bamboo is also a durable, safe and easy-to-use material”. As Vu was busy with DIY, his spare time is no longer useless. He built bamboo tables and chairs to serve the family's needs, made decorative lights and many other bamboo products.
“Making these rustic tables and chairs by myself makes me feel very happy. That gives me optimism while waiting for the pandemic situation to be controlled," he said.
Connected with the passion for DIY, Thanh Hai and Dinh Vu have become close friends. The two men often exchange experiences to practice making unique products such as wooden dog houses, wall paintings, light boxes, etc.
Sharing experiences and helping each other create useful and convenient DIY products, the men's joy doubled because they both found people with the same passion and generated income from their own passion.
Spreading love
Because of the variety of products which are unique and fancy, many acquaintances, friends, and customers have ordered paintings and mini houses made by Le Thanh Hai.
He said: “Each pet (dog) house costs from 1 to 1.5 million VND. Flower paintings depending on the type range from 150 to 200 thousand VND. I also knit bags from banana peels or gift boxes from banana stems, thereby generating income to continue my passion."
Le Thanh Hai also set up a Home Art fanpage to share his passion. In particular, he also sends his love for DIY materials and creativity to the little children. Taking advantage of discarded agricultural by-products such as banana ropes and corn husks, he organized free workshops for children who love DIY products.
He shared: “In 2020, I organized 5 to 6 workshops. In those workshops, I shared with the children how to recognize the materials as well as learn to make flowers from corn husks. The flowers that were instructed to make were quite easy to make such as chrysanthemums, or tulips. Just observing for about 10 minutes, the children could do it easily and vividly."
Story: Mai Hue
Photo: Provided by Characters from the story