Nguyen Dieu Thuy and her husband have turned bottle scrap into unique works of art which are both lucrative and environmentally friendly.

We visited Thuy’s house on Dang Van Ngu Street (Hanoi) at the weekend. Though extremely busy with preparations for opening a showroom on Ngoc Ha Street, the couple were very happy to share their stories about their creative use with bottle scrap.

In the beginning, they made some objects using bottles to decorate their house and to give to friends as presents. Once, Thuy showcased her products at a craft fair held at Chu Van An High School (Hanoi) which unexpectedly drew attention from many people so she got the idea of making pieces of art from bottles to sell.

To date, the couple’s products are quite diverse in style and sizes, including vases, candle holders, plant pots and decorative lamps. Most of these products are used as decorations in houses and cafes, which cost anywhere from 50,000- 500,000VND.

Dinh Thien Tam, Thuy’s husband, said that it usually takes over an hour to complete a simple artistic work but complicated ones require up to two days. He also kindly showed us the process of recycling bottles.

Firstly, bottles should be cut and ground so as to form shapes. It is the step that determines the drawing and painting process afterwards. Initially, manually cutting and grinding was pretty difficult and Tam and his wife sometimes cut themselves badly but as time moved on, they invested in cutting and grinding machines, which not only help minimise the time but also aid in diversifying the product’s forms and shapes.

After cutting and grinding, they draw and paint patterns such as nature, islands and the sea

and environmental slogans on the bottles to create attractive products. Techniques and skills learned from Hanoi University of Industrial Fine Arts help them a lot in the painting.

Thuy acknowledged: “We are doing this not only for business purposes but also to call on people to join hands in realistic environmental protection”.

Artworks by Nguyen Dieu Thuy and her husband:

The couple turns bottles into unique pieces of art.         Nguyen Dieu Thuy decorates bottles at the couple’s workshop on Dang Tien Dong street, Hanoi.         Thuy draws patterns on a bottle.         Cut and ground bottles are then painted to form beautiful products.           Decorating tools are simply paint and paintbrushes of different sizes.   Tam arranges finished products on shelves to be exhibited at the gallery on Ngoc Ha Street, Hanoi.

VNP