Engaged in the craft for more than ten years, Nguyen Duc Thuan has now become an expert in making glass animals. He has so far created over 40 animal designs which are the favourite in the market. Besides the 12 animal designations, he also makes animals from the world’s famous cartoon and comic strips.

Thuan said that most of the stages in making glass animals are done by hand so it requires the artists’ skillfulness, creativeness and preciseness. The smaller the products are, the more difficult they are to make. In addition, the artists suffer from the heat of the fire at a high temperature.

Every day it takes Thuan more than10 hours to make glass products. He first burns the glass bars over a fire at a high temperature until they melt, then quickly pulls, curves and cuts the glass into the shapes he desires.

Thuan is also fond of making sacred animals only seen in legends, such as dragons, lions, genie horses, unicorns and sphinxes, which require the artist’s skills and aesthetic taste, or according to the orders of customers. To give his products different colours, Thuan often imports glass from Taiwan and Japan.

At present, his products are available in big cities, such as Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Da Nang, Hai Phong and some western provinces in South Vietnam. They are also exported to Japan, the US and Australia.

Glass animals made by Thuan:

Nguyen Duc Thuan has been engaged in making glass animals for over 10 years.   Most of the work is manually done so it requires a lot of accuracy and experience.   Glass bars are heated at high temperature before shaping.   Glass bars imported from foreign countries have bold colours and high fastness.     The artist has to quickly and skillfully shape the glass bars right on fire.   A nearly completed glass horse.

VNP