Natural Color Dyeing Technique of Vietnam traditional handmade paper

Vietnam Traditional handmade paper – Do paper is made from the bark of Dó trees. Dó paper is used to store some materials or for painting in the folk arts of Vietnam, especially for Dong Ho paintings.

Nowadays, the art of creating this beautiful paper is almost lost because of the diminishing of the demand for this product. The reason is that the industrialization in Vietnam has developed quickly during the past 30 years. Therefore, Zó has made a big effort to preserve this local knowledge and make it alive once again in our modern life. The process of making Do paper is quite laborious. It takes a month for the artisan to make just one thin, porous and light Dó sheet.

Since Dó paper is soft and catches colors easily, it is very easy to dye it. The colorful paper will have higher applicability. Under the creative hands of artisans, Do paper has more natural colors, eye-catching with just 3 basic steps.

Step 1: Cut dyed materials. Then rinsed, drained

List of dyeing materials:

1. Peristrophe roxburghiana for pink color

2. Climbing spinach fruit for purple color

3. Purple cabbage for a light purple color

4. Roucou for red color

5. Fibraurea recisa for yellow color

Step 2: Put the ingredients in a separate pot, and begin to boil and let simmer this for one hour.

Step 3: Dye the papers with the prepared colored mix. Then dry them under the sun

After Step 3, we will obtain a variety of paper with eye-catching colors. From that, they are developed into a lot of interesting products by Zó projects such as lamp, fans, notebooks, calendars, earrings, etc.