Artisan · Kim hoàn thủ công · Định Công village

Đinh
Văn Hùng

Silversmith · Third generation · At the bench since 1996

“A thread of silver should be as fine as a hair and as patient as one.”

His mark, a tiny stamp inside the clasp of every piece.

Craft: Silver filigreeCuffs, earrings, small vessels
Workshop: Định CôngA room off the main road
Learned from: His uncleone of the last of the old masters
Signature: Silver beansat every join
On LangSoul: 5 worksTakes commissions

01 — The maker

Keeping a thread alive

When Hùng was a boy the village had three filigree masters left. He apprenticed to one of them, and now teaches the apprentices who will outnumber the masters again.

Silver wire drawn through a steel plate, growing finer, on a worn bench, at a Định Công silversmith's bench, worn wood, fine silver wire and a small torch flame, warm grey and silver tones

A small blue torch flame soldering silver filigree held in tweezers, at a Định Công silversmith's bench, worn wood, fine silver wire and a small torch flame, warm grey and silver tones

When Hùng was a boy the village had three filigree masters left. He apprenticed to one of them, and now teaches the apprentices who will outnumber the masters again.

Định Công’s craft nearly vanished in the 1990s; Hùng’s uncle was among the handful who kept drawing wire. Hùng learned the whole of it — drawing, twisting, building the pattern inside a frame, the mouth-blown flame, the granules at the joins — and has spent the last decade moving it from altar ornaments to forms for the wrist and the ear.

His cuffs are built, not cast: every curve is a thread laid by hand, and the silver beans at the joins are the village’s signature and his. He teaches four apprentices in the room off the main road.

Twisted silver wire bent and set into a lace pattern on a charcoal block, at a Định Công silversmith's bench, worn wood, fine silver wire and a small torch flame, warm grey and silver tones

A scatter of tiny silver beads beside a finished filigree piece, at a Định Công silversmith's bench, worn wood, fine silver wire and a small torch flame, warm grey and silver tones

02 — The works

Five works from the bench

All hand-wrought jewellery works

Filigree cuff, silver

Cuff · Edition of 5

$390

Filigree drop earrings

Earrings · Edition of 10

$260

Filigree pendant, lotus

Pendant · Edition of 12

$220

Filigree ring, silver

Ring · Edition of 15

$170

Filigree hairpin, phoenix

Hairpin · Edition of 8

$240

All hand-wrought jewellery works

03 — Commission

Hùng takes commissions throughout the year

A cuff to a wrist, a pair of earrings to match a piece you have, a pattern from an old photograph. Tell us what you have in mind and we will carry the conversation to the bench. Four to eight weeks from wire to crate.

Start a commission

A letter from Định Công

“The frame is built and the thread is drawn. Next week the flame; I will send a photograph before the beans go on.”

— to a collector, May 2026.

Start a commission

Other makers we work with

All artisans