The journal

Letters from the village

What we saw in the workshops this month, written down on the way home. Process, people, the weather that makes lacquer cure. One letter with each new moon; the rest whenever there is something to say.

A craft-village lane at dawn, bamboo drying racks along the wall, a kiln chimney smoking, Red River Delta mist

Villages · 14 October 2026 · 6 min

The village year: what the courtyards do in each season

Kilns fire before Tết, rattan dries in the summer sun, silk is loomed when the rains stop. A calendar of eight villages.

Read the letter

The sixth coat of a lacquer panel wet-sanded under a thin stream of water in Hạ Thái, grey slurry on black

Process · October 2026

Twelve layers, three months: how a lacquer panel is born

One board in Hạ Thái from raw jackfruit wood to its last polish under running water.

Split rattan cane drying on bamboo racks in a Phú Vinh courtyard in November sun, whitewashed walls

Villages · September 2026

The courtyards of Phú Vinh, where rattan dries in the sun

A village where every household weaves, and the pattern of the roofs repeats in the baskets below them.

The brick door of a Bát Tràng kiln being unbricked at first light, glowing shelves of celadon inside

Artisans · August 2026

Phạm Văn Đức and the glaze his family has kept for six generations

On the celadon that cannot be rushed, and why the kiln still opens at dawn.

An embroidery frame in a window in Quất Động in March, a lotus half-stitched in silk, morning light

Process · July 2026

A season of mornings: one embroidered lotus, stitch by stitch

Lê Thị Hoa works only before ten, when the light is flat. We counted the stitches so you don't have to.

A cinnabar-red lacquer tray on a pale Scandinavian oak table in a Copenhagen apartment, soft northern window light, a celadon bowl beside it

Living with · June 2026

Red lacquer on pale oak: how three collectors live with their works

Vietnamese craft in Nordic, Californian and Tokyo rooms. What travels well, and what surprised them.

Molten bronze going from the crucible into the mould before dawn in Đại Bái, sparks and smoke in lamplight

Villages · May 2026

The day the foundry pours: a morning in Đại Bái

Sand moulds, a thousand-year-old trade, and the drum pattern that has not changed since the Đông Sơn bronzes.

A letter with each new moon.

One story from the villages, one new work, once a month. Nothing else, and never a sale.