Vietnamese Hand Embroidery Art

 Embroidery art has a long and colorful history in Vietnam, is famous throughout the country, and is slowly reaching art aficionados throughout the world. Embroidery artisans have plied their trade within Vietnam for more than 700 years. Ha Tay and Ninh Binh Provinces are two of the most famous places of embroidery art within Vietnam. These places are reputed to be the birthplace of Vietnam’s beloved embroidery art; however, over the generations, embroidery art has spread throughout Vietnam because of migrations.  All of the beautiful landmark scenery in the North, Central, and South of Vietnam, as well as the unique subtle differences of the people in those regions, can now be found throughout the many embroidery art pieces from Vietnam.

These hand embroidered art pieces often look like paintings.  Careful examination will reveal that they are actually comprised of thousands of subtle colorful silk thread stitches applied to the canvas. Each embroidery art piece takes a great deal of time to complete. Our large Vietnamese embroidery pieces often take months to years for a single artist to finish. The process of making these embroidery art pieces requires a unique patience and talent amongst the Vietnamese artisans that is not normally found in traditional Western type art. With painting, an artist uses a paintbrush with the luxury of often having broad-brush strokes to finish off a piece. In hand embroidery, the artists must first sketch the image onto cloth, and then carefully select the appropriate colored tiny thread working each one gently into the piece stitch by stitch paying particular attention to the interaction of the different colors and shades of the individual threads. Simply said, embroidery art incorporates the finesse of painting with the demand of depth that sculpturing requires. It is the knowledge that these pieces took so much time, and painstaking attention by the artisan, that appeals to art lovers world wide.