Coming to Dao Khe village (Nghia Chau commune, Nghia Hung district, Nam Dinh province), it is not difficult to see the image of old men chewing betel leaves and sitting in a conical hat making. The elders in the village said that they cannot remember exactly when the profession of making conical hats has been around, only knowing that this profession has been passed down and preserved for many generations.
According to the villagers, to make a conical hat, first need a hat frame. Leaf hat has 16 rounds, eight frames. After that, the worker arranged different sizes into the wooden frame from the tip of the hat downward in order from childish to large. Making a cone is a harder stitch because it is round to be rounded, evenly, bending the rim really and harmonious.
Famous for her experience in sewing beautiful hats in Dao Khe village, Ms. Vu Thi Dom shared that making hats requires meticulousness and patience, with a beautiful hat taking 4 - 6 hours to complete the steps. The hat stitching stage is the most important part. To make a durable and beautiful hat, the hat seller must have skillful hands, each step is straight, without tearing the leaves. The stitches help keep the hat flat and do not create wrinkles or cones.
As the owner of a hat -collecting facility in Dao Khe village, Ms. Nguyen Thi Vai said: "The market is increasingly developing the demand for using hats is also less. A complete hat takes a lot of time but the price is not worthy. To be able to maintain my villagers also constantly changing the designs, conical hats serving a variety of markets like famous tourist resorts. Leaves - symbols of Vietnamese women ".
The profession of making hats brings low income, so up to now, Dao Khe village is still mostly made up of elderly people, with the desire to preserve the traditional profession. On average, each person can make 1 - 2 hats/day, the selling price of each conical hat ranges from 50,000 - 200,000 VND (depending on the craftsman's skills, the hat material will have different prices).
