For many years, artist Le Thanh Ha from Da Nang and his colleagues have created beautiful, intact coconut fiber paper-based paintings. This is a line of paintings made entirely by hand using ancient methods and the technique of engraving on wet powder through a unique mold - developed from the Rakusui Washi printing technique on Japanese wet paper with a durability of 100 to 300 years, equivalent to ancient paper.

Some coconut fiber paper-based paintings at artist Le Thanh Ha's workshop. Photo: https://nhandan.vn

Coconut fiber paper-based paintings are made from periwinkle branches using the traditional paper pouring method of the H'Mong people.

Coconut shells and periwinkle sheaths are harvested, and then the hard green shell is peeled off and chopped into thin slices. The artisan soaks this part of the coconut in water for about 3 days to let the coconut latex fade away and then continues to cook this part of the coconut shell with quicklime for 24 hours. After that, the coconut shells are taken out, washed with water, then put into a grinding machine until creating coconut powder with a satisfactory fiber consistency. After grinding, the coconut fiber is fermented for 10-17 days to create a natural whiteness.

The 10-step process to create a coconut paper painting: hand-draw each pattern; scan through a drawing machine and use software to create a pattern set; arrange the set of motifs into a painting layout according to the customer's required size; cut decal to create mold; apply tape to keep the pattern from falling apart; put the pattern on the mesh frame, remove the tape and redraw it with a carving knife; complete the mold to hold the shape and pour, flatten the coconut pulp; engrave and draw artifacts on wet paper; paper drying. Once completed, the painting will be framed in a box.

Reporting by https://nhandan.vn/ - Translating by A.THU