Hoi An Lantern Workshop – 2024 Update

Internationally Hoi An is probably best known for three things: The yellow buildings of the old town, its tailors and the hundreds if not thousands of colourful lanterns all over the city. You can’t walk down even one street without seeing several of them. Buying one as a souvenir is the first thing that will come to your mind, but why not make your own in a Hoi An Lantern Workshop, under the guidance of a crafting master?

Over the years I visited two Workshops, one with Phuong (2022) and with the Lantern Lady (twice, 2023 and 2024).

Making the lantern is a great experience and you not only leave with a unique souvenir (because you made it!) but also with a new appreciation for all the colourful lanterns all over the city and the people who make them. If you are worried about how to fit a lantern into your luggage: IT FOLDS!

• Lantern Making Experience
• Lantern Workshop
• How to make a lantern
• Workshop details and where to book

Hoi An Lantern Making Experience

Phong’s workshop is not inside the old town, but not too far from it. On a nice day, it’s a great walk along a street with lots of shops and cafes (which are a lot cheaper than in the old town). Once I got there I met three more travellers who were also there to learn how to make a lantern themselves. Phong greeted us with herbal tea and introduced herself and her craft:

She was born into a family that has been making Hoi An lanterns for three generations. Not only did she take over the workshop from her parents, but her love for the craft and desire to keep the knowledge of how to make the traditional Hoi An lanterns alive she opened the workshop to guests and tourists of Vietnam.

After this introduction, we moved into a bamboo hut where she had set up everything we would need to make our lantern.

While we were waiting for our lanterns to dry at the end of the workshop Phong served us tea, coconut- and mung bean rice cake as well as dragon fruit and mango, which were all delicious and we had the chance to get to know each other better and exchange travel and life stories.

From the talking and waiting, I ended up being late to meet a friend who would be leaving the city that night and at the time of day couldn’t find a motorbike taxi to come to the location. Before I started to properly panic, Phong had already gotten her scooter and kindly took me back into the city.

Workshop with the Lantern Lady

Crafting a Hoi An Lantern – Workshop

First, you choose the shape of the lantern you want to make. Then you choose the silk or patterned fabric for your lantern. The first time I chose to make the medium sized traditional Hoi An shaped lantern in red silk to go with a tapestry I brought home from Ha Noi in 2019, the second time a small diamond shaped one in turquoise silk to gift to my parents and the third time a small round one with a red and flower patterned lantern.

Depending on the workshop you either cut the silk into four strips of the same length and iron them to remove any wrinkles, or you can choose pre-cut cloth which will be ironed for you. Applying the glue to the stakes is relatively easy, but applying the correct amount in an even way is complicated. Once the glue has dried just enough you are shown how to set and stretch the fabric to cover the stakes. At first, I was worried it would rip if I pulled it too tight, but the silk can take a lot of pulling. For your first lantern(s) I would recommend choosing silk as the patterned fabric is a lot more finicky.

The entire skeleton of the lantern has to be covered in silk, but there is a special technique to it, to make sure that once it’s done the overlays aren’t too visible. The second side you cover in silk is the one opposite the first. Only then do you cover the two remaining sides and finally cut off all overhand as closely to the stake as you can.

I don’t know if it sounds easy from what I wrote here, but I thought it would be. Or at least easier than it turned out to be the first time, because I struggled. A lot.

After what felt like more time than had been planned I managed to finish draping and glueing the silk in a satisfactory way. Once the lantern is covered you glue thick cardboard strips covered in the same (or a different) fabric around the top and bottom of the hanger to cover up the janky fabric cutoffs.

In the last step you choose a tassel for the lantern base. I went with gold for the red lantern, a darker turquoise for the turquoise lantern and a red for the flower patterned lantern. Getting the tassel to hang as it was supposed to be was a bit of a struggle (again), but I got there in the end.

Adorned with the tassel the lantern is done and left out to dry a bit more before you can fold it to bring it home.