Silverware production in Laos and Vietnam: same same but different

As you may know, my country, Vietnam, and Laos are both famous for silver products. We use silver to create jewelry and to decorate stuffs.

I think jewelry shapes will vary based on market needs so I do not want to talk more about it.

However, I think my country and Laos do have some differences about silver. I have realized that Laos people tend to use shapes with angles to decorate their silver stuffs. Laos artisans also take advantages of these angle shapes combine with circle shapes to make jewelry. You can see from the pictures below.

• 1st and 2nd pictures are silver products in Laos

• the 3rd one shows Laos people working to produce silver products. They use their special tools to create the shapes for these products.

(picture credits to my Laos friend: Somnuc Anousinh)

(pictures taken at Laos, people in these pictures belong to one ethic minority group named H’Mong. One special thing about this information: as I have mentioned in previous messages, Vietnam has 54 ethics minority groups and we also have one group calls H’Mong).

This group in my country, Vietnam, has an interesting special event call “bắt vợ”. A man can ask his friends or family members to kidnap the girl he loves. Then, some special customs will be conducted to make this girl his wife. Sometimes, their parents may not agree them to get married. However, young people have this event to solve the problem.

As I have mentioned in previous stories about Tet’s holiday. Vietnam also has 36 ancient streets in Hanoi. Each street will have lots of shops that supply similar products. We also have Silver Street- where people can look for silver or gold jewelry. Moreover, there is also a special village in Hanoi. People there use silver to decorate stuffs. They create images of people, plants or animals to decorate. Some of them look like pictures. (see pictures below)

-1st picture is the entrance gate to the village with a welcome banner

-2nd picture is one completed products made of silver

-3rd picture describe how craftpersons can make these silverwares

(pictures credit to my Vietnamese friend: Nguyễn Phú Đức)

(pictures taken at Kiêu Kỵ Village – Gia Lâm – Hanoi - Vietnam)