A young man in Can Tho City has made a living for himself by using rice to make paintings and decorate handbags.

Buu and a rice painting

Khuu Tan Buu is a senior student at Can Tho University but already has his own stores. The young man was fascinated by rice paintings since he was still in secondary and high school.

"When I look at the rice paintings, they are not still, I feel like I can see the scenery and people inside move right before my eyes," he said.

Since then, he started researched about rice and dreamed of the day that he could make one himself. In 2016, he completed the first works that mostly were bamboo, lotus flowers or old house paintings, and had many offers online.

"After selling rice paintings on the internet for a while, I realised that they could be a meaningful present. However, it's hard to ship large paintings overseas and small paintings can't fully express the artists' ideas. So I decided to use rice to decorate handbags. More importantly, customers can bring the bags with them to anywhere," Buu said.

Each bag costs an average price of VND800,000 (USD35)

He gathered opinions from many people, some thought that the project was impossible since rice might be destroyed by water. In addition, Buu only had VND30m (USD1,300) at the time to start the project. But he was determined and bought all kinds of bags to try.

Buu said, "You have to use Huong Lai rice and I handpicked the rice to have an even size. I use natural ingredients like turmeric and beetroot to dye the rice and make the products environmentally-friendly and safe for customers."

Buu has hired 15 employees who are also students to help gluing the rice to the bags.

Buu handpicked the rice

The bags he uses often have the size of 20x25cm. Buu and his employees will glue the rice to the front of the bag in four to five days. Buu guarantees that his bags can be used for 15 years and won't be ruined by the rain.

Each bag costs an average price of VND800,000 (USD35).

He has made collections of bags with various themes. A French firm asked to display his work. His newest store was just opened on January 1 in An Hoa Ward.

"When I opened a store on Hoa Binh Boulevard, I received a group of Japanese tourists and they really liked the bags with a lotus pattern. I've made rice calligraphy and decorations for key chains this Tet," he said.

nguoilaodong, dtinews