Phuc Loi, Hanoi

‘Phuc Loi’ is a wooden stamp making shop I stumbled across in Hanoi when walking around the old quarter. I wasn’t sure what it was about this place but this shop seemed to stand out from the others, seeming to me their was a bit more history behind it. The small shop is on Ta Hien street (beer street) and is desperately holding onto it’s space with the encroaching beer shops/backpacker market slowly taking over the area. Once inside the history was clear! The certificates of ‘master carver’ from decades before proudly displayed, fading on the walls and the elderly man sat with his life’s work around him. They won’t sell or make prints which to me seemed strange only the wooden blocks for stamps. I commissioned him to make the stamp for my website logo which you can see at the bottom of this page.
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Single layer woodcut, carved from a 10 x 15cm Japanese magnolia woodblock on Arches 300 GSM archival rag, hand painted with watercolor tones.
 
Limited edition of 6