These elegantly designed, personalized stamps can be purchased at numerous cluttered hole-in-the-wall shops around the Old Quarter. The designs are hand-carved by order on wooden blocks, and you will get a red or blue ink stamping pad along with your purchase. Alternatively for around VND35,000-VND50,000, you can own a readymade stamp with a variety of religious symbols or zoadiac animals (dragons, phoenixes, tortoises, and so on) or something more random like a cowboy.

You can have your own custom-made stamp for VND100,000-VND150,000. Each one only takes about 20 minutes to make. The carvers also make wooden blocks in the style of Dong Ho and Hang Trong folk art and various other decorative items.

The artisans always seem to be busy whittling, carving, filling and sanding, so the work you imagine is profitable enough. But the craftspeople I meet whistle a different tune. Pham Duc Tri and Pham Minh Thien, two brothers and experienced craft workers working on Hang Quat street, go as far to say that the craft is ultimately doomed.

They are the fourth generation in their family to ply this trade. They have inherited the Phuc Loi trademark which was established in 1923. For decade they have worked out of their 10sqm shop. “We have both local customers and foreigners, and especially Japanese, Korean and European tourists, who seem to love these sophisticated handmade products,” says Tri, but raising rents and minimal profits mean that he and his brother may quit the trade sooner rather than later.

According to Tri, several years ago, there was more competition with neighbouring stamp shops on the street, but now many of them given up making stamps and changed business or rent out the premises to travel agents, souvenirs merchants or restaurateurs.

Later on, while walking down Hang Bo street, I stop in front of a board with tens of wooden stamps on display. A young boy is concentrating while carving a western style cowgirl. When he looks up, Nguyen Thanh, just 18 years old, tells me he has worked as a stamp carver in the street for two years since graduating high school and failing to pass the entrance examination for the University of Fine Arts.

With only two years experience, he is clearly adept at creating a wide range of unique and diversified products - he also knows how to meet his customer’s demands. “I create many up-to-date motifs from international cartoons or films, which teenagers and young people like to collect,” say Thanh.

“Owning a stamp is sort of a fashionable trend now. I do not think this kind of work will be lost…regardless, I will keep creating more stamps anyway.”

He is happy working on the side of street carving round, oval and square wood blocks. He says he will stay here till his dying days despite strong opposition from his parents, who hope he will still try to get into university and continue his education.

“This is my favourite job and I am happy to do this forever. Through making and selling wooden stamps, I can meet many people from many countries around the world. I can learn from them and crate my own world of art with a stool, a chisel and wooden blocks.”

Historically the art of seal-carving was borrowed from China. In Vietnam, it was used by the king and mandarins in feudal times. Hong Luc and Lieu Trang craft villages in Hai Duong province carved and printed using wood and stone back in the 10^th century.

And now here we are, 1,000 years later, with Thanh carving lizards and dragons on stamps for tourists and locals both looking for little mementos or gifts for friends in Hanoi and far beyond.

Source: Time out