Vietnamese Papermaking, teaching and workshops
Paper Book Intesive, May 18 - 29, 2025
Ox-Bow School of Crafts
Experimentations: Vietnamese Papermaking
For centuries, traditional Vietnamese papermaking communities across the country have depended on various plant materials local to their region for making paper. Plants including paper mulberry, perennial shrubs, and bamboo were used in making paper for spiritual and mundane use. In this workshop, students learned traditional Vietnamese papermaking techniques using the liềm seo (bamboo woven screen) and khung seo (two-part wooden frame) to make paper. Students experimented with making papers out of dó plant fibers grown in Viet Nam, locally collected plant fibers around the Oxbow area as well as paper mulberry grown in North America to conduct comparisons in fiber length, sheen, and strength in sheet formation.
Students worked in various sizes—9’’ x 12’’, 12’’ x 18’’, and 20’’ x 30’’—everyone will have a chance to build their own unique library sample of papers. Instruction covered fiber preparation, hand beating, sheet formation, pressing, drying using traditional equipment, and demos of bark manipulation like bark lace and making thread.
image by Jeannie Pham
Vietnamese Papermaking with Dó
Aug 10 - 15, 2025
Penland School of Crafts, Penland, North Carolina
The first ever Vietnamese papermaking workshop conducted at Penland School of Crafts with fully eqipped studio with Vietnamese traditional equipment using the liềm seo (bamboo woven screen) made from master screen weaver Thài Đô Duy and the khung seo (two-part wooden frame) made from master woodworker Nguyễn Công Hoàng.
Students experimented with sheet formation with various sizes, fiber preparation, and had a chance to experiement with dó bark manipulation. Various demonstrations were covered including bark lace for sculpture, sheet formation with dó, gampi, and regionally grown kozo from Amy Richards studio , bark thread, and bark cloth for textile.
Big Paper, Community, Vietnamese Papermaking
Art at the Kent, Calais VT
For centuries, traditional Vietnamese papermaking communities across the country have depended on various plant materials local to their region for making paper. Plants including paper mulberry, perennial shrubs, and bamboo were used in making paper for spiritual and mundane use. In this workshop, students learned traditional Vietnamese papermaking techniques using the liềm seo (bamboo woven screen) and khung seo (two-part wooden frame) to make paper. Students experimented with making papers out of dó plant fibers grown in Viet Nam, locally collected plant fibers around the Oxbow area as well as paper mulberry grown in North America to conduct comparisons in fiber length, sheen, and strength in sheet formation.
Students worked in various sizes—9’’ x 12’’, 12’’ x 18’’, and 20’’ x 30’’—everyone will have a chance to build their own unique library sample of papers. Instruction covered fiber preparation, hand beating, sheet formation, pressing, drying using traditional equipment, and demos of bark manipulation like bark lace and making thread.
