The journal · Villages

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 · October 2026

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.

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.

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.