My wife and myself have visited Hoi An many times in the past, and each time we look to do a class of something traditional in the locality..
This time we found the above handicrafts workshop..
Lantern making.
Pottery.
And traditional bamboo caligraphy writing/ painting..
Having tried the first two in other places, we decided to try and learn the third craft..
Greeted by a very friendly gentleman and after knowing which class we had booked, we were taken upstairs, at this point we passed by their lantern workshop, where a group of westerners were being guided on how to make these wonderful and colourful items..
So, too our own class..
Just us, our teacher and the workshop gentlemen was also in the room to help with translation, as our teacher spoke very few words outside his own language..
Firstly we are shown how to just relax and take a couple of mins of quiet thought..
A really calming experience..
Then you are serve some green tea.
( you are shown how best too serve this tea), again interesting how they make tea..
And so to the course..
Thus man spent 10yrs learning this craft..
His effortless flow of the bamboo brush, to create beautiful writing, really is nice to watch..
Then you are given lots of paper..
Now it's your turn to follow what he does, and try to write different letters on your paper..
Trust me, in the time you have, yours wint look like his, but what you end up doing, after aprox 90mins, is a work of your own art that you take home with you..
We found this class very enjoyable and we had some laughs doing the early lettering attempts..
But we left the workshop with a piece of art we did ourselves and that was an achievement too be proud of..
Well worth doing this..
And if you are a family with you or older children, this would be a great family time workshop too..
