Red Dao Embroidery Workshop
Experience code: DaoStitch
Stitches and patterns and the warm wind blowing,
the days pass quickly when I am sewing.
Duration: 1 day
Departure time: 8.30am - 9.30am
Return Time: Before Dusk
Physical activity: Easy
Location - Sapa - Ta Phin (traditional Dao village)
Travel Style: - Cultural immersion and participatory workshops.
Connectivity: Wifi - None, Mobile coverage - good.
Departure time: 8.30am - 9.30am
Return Time: Before Dusk
Physical activity: Easy
Location - Sapa - Ta Phin (traditional Dao village)
Travel Style: - Cultural immersion and participatory workshops.
Connectivity: Wifi - None, Mobile coverage - good.
Background:
The Red Dao people live in the mountainous region of northern Vietnam near Sa Pa. They reside side-by-side with the Black Hmong, and live in a subsistence rice & corn growing culture. Embroidery is one of the special skills of the Red Dao. They acquire silk thread and cotton fabric from other local tribes and use these materials to make their traditional embroidered clothing. In this way the local minorities rely on one another. The silk is twisted. Depending on the size of the thread, it is later twisted again. Sometimes two or four threads are twisted together to make thread ready for embroidering.
The embroidery is completed in lines, using the full length of the needle, and it is quite unique in that a design appears on both sides of the fabric. Embroidery skills are extremely important in ethnic minority life. A woman’s outfit includes a heavily embroidered tunic, apron, and pants, as well as embroidered accessories. A traditional outfit can take up to a year and a half to produce and the embroidery skills take many years to master. Traditional clothing is still worn daily by most Dao women. This means that women take their embroidery with them wherever they go, working on it whenever they have a free moment.No Red Dao women is seen as fit to marry or even desirable until she has sewn her own clothes.
The Red Dao people live in the mountainous region of northern Vietnam near Sa Pa. They reside side-by-side with the Black Hmong, and live in a subsistence rice & corn growing culture. Embroidery is one of the special skills of the Red Dao. They acquire silk thread and cotton fabric from other local tribes and use these materials to make their traditional embroidered clothing. In this way the local minorities rely on one another. The silk is twisted. Depending on the size of the thread, it is later twisted again. Sometimes two or four threads are twisted together to make thread ready for embroidering.
The embroidery is completed in lines, using the full length of the needle, and it is quite unique in that a design appears on both sides of the fabric. Embroidery skills are extremely important in ethnic minority life. A woman’s outfit includes a heavily embroidered tunic, apron, and pants, as well as embroidered accessories. A traditional outfit can take up to a year and a half to produce and the embroidery skills take many years to master. Traditional clothing is still worn daily by most Dao women. This means that women take their embroidery with them wherever they go, working on it whenever they have a free moment.No Red Dao women is seen as fit to marry or even desirable until she has sewn her own clothes.
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Workshops:
Workshops use traditional cotton fabrics, silk threads and Dao needles. The fabric is hand spund and hand woven and has a tight weave and small holes. Needles are far smaller than most ethnic groups in Vietnam too meaning the work of the Dao is finer and more intricate. It is this that sets their work apart and has earnt the Dao a repulation of being excuisite needleworkers. Good hand eye coordination is essential for our workshops, as is the need for patience and dexterity. A days workshop will usual yeald an outcome that is small, testiment to the time taken to produce a full set of clothes. |
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The Day:
Option 1:
Full day sewing workshop in the ETHOS Community Centre. Classes begin between 9 am and 10am. Tuition is always one on one or in very small groups. We use traditional fabrics, patterns and techniques. Your teacher will be a Red Dao woman with many years of experience. This is an ethnic group where embroidering is second nature to them: they do it daily, almost mechanically. Skilled and patient, Red Dao women work complex stitches whose stylised patterns symbolise the surrounding nature, fauna and flora but also certain beliefs and rites of passage: birth, puberty, union and death. Each of the designs has a different meaning, some of them mean rice, or trees, or mother or father. You will create a small piece and learn about the fabrics, threads and symbology.
The day includes lunch and all refreshments.
Cost $50 per person
Additional bolt on option includes a traditional Red Dao Herbal Bath $7
Option 2:
Ta Phin is a picturesque mountain village North of Sapa. Set within a valley with a towering mountain peak at one end, this village is alive with the daily life of the Red Dao and Black Hmong minority hill tribes groups. After an early start, you will make your way to Ta Phin by taxi. Travel to your hosts home and explore the family farm. Prepare the threads and begin your lesson. Enjoy a local lunch, freshly prepared and using village ingredients. Continue the sewing workshop at your leisure. You will create a small piece and learn about the fabrics, threads and symbology.
Additional bolt on option includes a traditional Red Dao Herbal Bath for $7
Option 3:
Two day and one nigh trekking option. Day one - take transportation to a beautiful village located about 40 minutes from Sapa. Trek through some of the best montain cloud forest in Vietnam before dropping down into a remote Red Dao Village. Meander approximately 11km along buffalo trails through forests and rice paddies. Sleep in a traditional Red Dao Homestay. Day 2 as above (option 2).
Full day sewing workshop in the ETHOS Community Centre. Classes begin between 9 am and 10am. Tuition is always one on one or in very small groups. We use traditional fabrics, patterns and techniques. Your teacher will be a Red Dao woman with many years of experience. This is an ethnic group where embroidering is second nature to them: they do it daily, almost mechanically. Skilled and patient, Red Dao women work complex stitches whose stylised patterns symbolise the surrounding nature, fauna and flora but also certain beliefs and rites of passage: birth, puberty, union and death. Each of the designs has a different meaning, some of them mean rice, or trees, or mother or father. You will create a small piece and learn about the fabrics, threads and symbology.
The day includes lunch and all refreshments.
Cost $50 per person
Additional bolt on option includes a traditional Red Dao Herbal Bath $7
Option 2:
Ta Phin is a picturesque mountain village North of Sapa. Set within a valley with a towering mountain peak at one end, this village is alive with the daily life of the Red Dao and Black Hmong minority hill tribes groups. After an early start, you will make your way to Ta Phin by taxi. Travel to your hosts home and explore the family farm. Prepare the threads and begin your lesson. Enjoy a local lunch, freshly prepared and using village ingredients. Continue the sewing workshop at your leisure. You will create a small piece and learn about the fabrics, threads and symbology.
Additional bolt on option includes a traditional Red Dao Herbal Bath for $7
Option 3:
Two day and one nigh trekking option. Day one - take transportation to a beautiful village located about 40 minutes from Sapa. Trek through some of the best montain cloud forest in Vietnam before dropping down into a remote Red Dao Village. Meander approximately 11km along buffalo trails through forests and rice paddies. Sleep in a traditional Red Dao Homestay. Day 2 as above (option 2).
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