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The VVG Collection Ethnic Tribal BasketsCopyright © 1998-2008 Vietnam Venture Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Updated April 4, 2008 |
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COMMITTED, EXCLUSIVE DISTRIBUTORS SOUGHT
The items shown here are examples of some of the designs available from the master craftsmen with whom we have personal and professional relationships.
Unlike other products shown on these pages, V V G acts as the principal and not the agent.
Baskets from many different Ethnic Minority People from Vietnam
Baskets from the Karen People, displaced from Burma and now in Thailand.
We have a direct interest in these products and their manufacture. We are in the process of reviving the weaving trade, not simply seeking to reproduce old-style baskets. While some individual old baskets are available, we will sell only new baskets that appear to be the same, and to the trade only in wholesale quantities.
To see details of these baskets and what makes them so special, please click here.
We are in the process of seeking established regional distributors who will be given exclusive territories for five (5) years subject to meeting annual take-or-pay commitments. Please write to us if you have an interest in considering a regional distributorship
Click here to see high resolution images of the quality of these baskets
Jump Ahead and see our beautiful Tribal Products, or read some
HISTORY
An excellent description of the 11 different ethnic minority people who live in Thailand, as well as this nation's richness of ethnic diversity even among the majority peoples can be found elsewhere. A separate window will open taking you to a different server and web site. Close that window and this one will still be on your screen. Vietnam has 54 separate ethnic minority people in its vast population. Many have their own language, not merely a dialect of Vietnamese. They too have their own culture and customs. There are few if any physiognomy differences between the people of Vietnam, yet it is easy to distinguish the people from the Minority tribes from their more prosperous and sophisticated Viet neighbors.
Many of these people produce almost all the essential products for their own use, with only infrequent trips to more central markets for trade each year.
With strict gender-based divisions of labor, the work done collectively does not yield a commodity, but a part of the best possible product for the community.
Many produce household articles that are well known and distinctive. Woven products are quite diversified, with most articles made from rattan or various species of bamboo. Each is decorated in a simple but beautiful pattern. Some are for daily use, while others are for ritual or labor.
Whether baskets, sieves, back-packs, mattresses, chairs, fishing traps, tobacco boxes and more, it seems strange to the more sophisticated societies that in their own culture, these ethnic people prefer the more modern pieces to the old.
These craft products are loosing their local market viability as they cannot compete favorably with industrial commodities that are mass produced and sold widely at cheap prices.
Goods are traditionally not sold for profit but bartered at even exchanges for the value of labor. Until the establishment of craft villages, the people did not have any economic incentive to specialize in making such products.
In some ethnic minority societies, only one month a year was allotted for making woven products, whether baskets, wattles for drying rice, or repairing and building new granaries for storage of rice.
The products shown here are made by members of various ethnic minority people who now seek to keep their craft skills alive and pass them on to succeeding generations.
In an ever-changing and more modern world, that task becomes all the more difficult with each passing year.
For the collector of fine handicraft products, that only adds to the value of the collection.
However, for the people of the land, to preserve their heritage, it is deemed a necessity that these crafts continue.
Woven products of Vietnam's ethnic minorities in various forms reveals the following distinctive characteristics:
- Unique breakthroughs in form, curve and sculpture
- Unique application of decorative patterns
- Unique colors and use of colored leaves, woods and fabrics
- A distinctly Vietnamese esthetic element of overall design and function.
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VVG alone has a unique relationship with the leading Master Weavers in Thailand and Vietnam. We are the exclusive buyers of the entire production lot of each village that weaves for us. The same Master Weavers who are now in their 70s and 80s, are for the first time in decades teaching young apprentices, who themselves are in training to become journeymen. For the first time ever, these works of art will soon be produced in commercial quantities for the sale to discerning buyers. No where else in the world are baskets of these sizes and complexity made. We feature only baskets woven by the top Master Craftswomen. These are their best designs that come from the Ba-Na and Se Dang peoples of the Central Highlands in Vietnam, and the Padong and Hmong peoples now in Thailand |
Scroll down and enjoy our baskets
and then come back up here, or go first to see the
Ethnic Minority People of the Highlands, how they live, make, and use these magnificent baskets today.
A separate window in this web site will open at this link, but this window will
still be open and available for you to browse through. Enjoy you trip.
Due to extremely difficult local conditions, commercial production in Vietnam has been slower than expected, and is now expected not to commence before early 2006. Commercial production can start in Thailand as soon as we locate a distributor.
Each of the baskets pictured is from 2 to 30+ years old.
Wholesale orders can be filled only with new articles that have been made (and aged) by the same skilled craftsmen and craftswomen in their remote, mountain villages. Each new basket will have the appearance shown here.
BASKETS FROM VIETNAM
Click on photos to see an enlarged image
Sizes are in
centimeters. For conversion to English inches,
click
here
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| #996.41.18 D-16; H-15 |
#997.31.9 D-13; H- 10 |
#997.05.45 not available |
#997.23.33 H- 25 |
#997.5.11 D-45 H- 50 |
#996.6.8 D-25; H-19 |
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| #996.40.61 H- 53 |
#996.13.8 w-46;h-62; D-55 |
#994.3.1 H- 75 |
#996.23.153 H- 43 |
#996.12.44 H- 26 |
#996.12.59 H- 25 |
#996.12.60 H- 47 |
Click on photos to see an enlarged image
Sizes are in
centimeters. For conversion to English inches,
click
here
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| #996.34.35 H- 35 |
#996.34.67 D-29; H- 13.5 |
#996.34.197 H- 27 |
#996.12.15 D-72 |
#996.34.156 H- 43 |
#996.12.50 H - 83 |
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| #996.39.130 H- 52 |
#996.39.180 H- 35 |
#996.39.267 H- 60 |
#996.39.299 H- 44 |
Click on photos to see an enlarged image
Sizes are in
centimeters. For conversion to English inches,
click
here
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| #997.07.65 H- 37 |
#996.36.118 H- 32 |
#996.36.48 H- 104 |
#996.12.33 H- 46 |
Please now go and look at how the Ethnic Minority People of the Central Highlands, live, make, and use these magnificent baskets today.
Approximate
conversion of centimeters to inches
5 cm = 2 inches
10 cm = 4 inches
15 cm = 6 inches
20 cm = 8 inches
25 cm = 10 inches
30 cm = 1 foot
The full range of handicrafts that we work with include
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Americana Wooden Indians & Cowboys Rocking & Hobby Horses Ceramics Bat Trang Pottery Glazed Pots & Saucers Doors Hardwoods: Rose & Teak Furniture Carved Hardwood Inlaid Hardwood Lacquered Hardwood Garden Hardwood Pine Mass produced Rattan & Water Hyacinth Rustic - Provincial Teak |
We Also Work With Table Top: |
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