Workshops
Half a day at the atelier in Thạch Xá: a blank bamboo dragonfly, a tray of paints, and the final, quiet step of tuning it on your fingertip until it rests in balance. You take it home the same afternoon.
Write to book
What it is
We welcome small groups — families, classes, company away-days, friends on a weekend out of Hanoi — to the atelier for a hands-on painting session. Đỗ Văn Liên and Nguyễn Thị Xoan host each group in person. A blank bamboo body is already shaped and sanded for you; the craft you learn is the one that follows.
You paint, you tune, you leave with a dragonfly that balances — and, we hope, a better feel for why a village keeps a craft like this alive.
What you’ll do
No prior art experience is needed. The session takes about two hours, unhurried. Drinking water is provided; we don’t cater food or snacks — the details of your visit we settle with you beforehand by email or WhatsApp.
From a tray of hand-shaped bamboo bodies — different wing spans, slightly different grains — you pick the one that feels right.
Water-based paints, a brush or two, and a small ceramic palette. Xoan shows you the colours the village has painted dragonflies with for twenty years — then you mix your own.
Wings first, body next, tail last. Work with the grain, keep the strokes light. Most guests finish somewhere around the point they stop being precious about it.
The last and best step. Liên sits with you and works the beak a touch at a time — a shaving here, a brushstroke there — until your dragonfly rests on a single fingertip. That is when it’s finished.
At the table
Practical details
From 2 to 20 guests. Families and school groups very welcome — we have hosted children as young as six.
About two hours at the painting table, plus time for a short walk around the atelier.
Our atelier works in Vietnamese. We don’t provide an interpreter — for English-speaking guests we get through the session with translation apps and a lot of gesture, and it works. Guests who bring their own interpreter have the easiest time, and we’d encourage that where possible.
Liên Xoan workshop, Thôn Đồng Sống, Xã Tây Phương — about forty kilometres west of central Hanoi, at the foot of Tây Phương Pagoda. Easy by car or taxi; we can suggest drivers.
One hand-shaped bamboo dragonfly per guest, all paints and brushes, drinking water, and a short tour of the atelier. You keep your finished piece. Food and snacks are not provided; anything beyond the basics we’ll arrange with you in advance by email or WhatsApp.
We run workshops by appointment, Tuesday to Saturday. Please write at least one week ahead — two for larger groups.
On request. We quote per group depending on size, duration, and whether you would like a longer bamboo-splitting demonstration included.
We run private sessions for companies, schools, design studios and away-days. Tell us the group and the feel you are after — we shape the afternoon to fit.
Free up to 48 hours ahead. We understand plans change.
Come and paint
Tell us roughly when you’d like to come, how many of you, and whether there are any children in the group. We’ll reply within a business day with available dates and a quote.
Write to book a workshop