Had a short getaway after our wedding in Hoi An, where the old town is lined with lanterns – we thought we’d make one to bring home!
There were many beautiful lanterns along the streets, which made a beautiful sight in the day and at night. I was looking for something to make during this trip, and it wasn’t difficult to come to an answer.
Found a post from the Hidden Hoi An sharing a few different options to make lanterns, and we went with the Xu Dang Trong Lantern Workshop, as that was easiest for us to get to. The place also had a few other workshops, and other lovely craft items for sale:
There was a stage in the centre of the hall which was littered with lantern frames (presumably for students). They probably also have performances happening on the stage from time to time
It was a relatively straightforward workshop, where we got to choose the colour of our lantern, and followed simple instructions to stick (and stretch) the cloth on the frame (there are workshops where you get to make the frame as well, but the timings didn’t work well for us).
The trick was to stretch the cloth nicely, and trim it close too the frame, so that you can’t tell that it was made up of many pieces of cloth (vs one)
The lantern frames can also be “compressed”/folded in, somewhat like an umbrella, which was great for us to take home!
Us and our lanterns!
Starting to decorate my room – lanterns have found their spot! Do you recognize the other items from my earlier projects 😀
Details of the workshop
Duration: ~30 minutes – was a very short and simple workshop! I believe it’s possible to walk in, but I got our hotel to call to make a reservation
Price: I paid VND 120,000 (~SGD 7) for the workshop fee, which included all the materials and lantern for us to bring home
Level of “fun”: 2.5/5
The workshop was enjoyable and very simple, and great alternative to buying a souvenir off the shelf to bring home, because making one is always more special! Over time, I think the correlation between difficulty and fun gets stronger – somewhat like in life. Level of fun would have been greater for me if it was a little bit more difficult :p
Level of difficulty: 1.5/5
This was an extremely simple workshop – the biggest challenge I had was to recognise the front / back of the fabric (don’t laugh, but I got one piece wrong!). The embroidery made it difficult to tell front from back (cos both sides looked like could be the front for me!). Ask the instructor if you’re not sure, because it’s not so nice to peel it out to redo it after the glue has dried!