Quilling Cards: A Labor of Love


 

As a certified member of the Fair Trade Federation, Quilling Card Company has assembled three workshops in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam where each design is meticulously handcrafted by one of the 300+ local artisans. Quilling Card is proud to have become the premiere source of preserving and sharing this beautiful lost art.

Every card is a labor of love - each one takes one hour to create by hand. 

In fact, from the initial design to the quilled card that you purchase here on our website, it took a total of 10 months to create one of these cards when it was first produced.

This lost art has given jobs to hundreds of locals, most being young women from rural areas surrounding Ho Chi Minh City who have little education due to lack of resources. This makes them unqualified candidates for desirable employment options so it’s important they are given opportunities to learn new skills. They are offered a complete training program that provides all of the tools necessary for those interested to become experts in quilling.

Most of these artisans currently fall into the young millennial category—being on average, 23 years old. Each artisan comes to truly enjoy the craft and meditative state that quilling provides, spending approximately one hour to complete each design. There are four tools needed for quilling: forceps, a mini motor to shape paper, scissors and a little stick. It is delicate work  but provides peace of mind, improves concentration and helps lesson stress for the young artisans.

Quilling Card is a Woman-Owned Business and 99% of the artisans are women. 

Founder Huong Nguyen Wolf, a native of Vietnam, started with just 10 women, but the enterprise has now grown to 300 staff, never straying from the goal of paying a fair wage to every employee. She also gives maternity leave and healthcare benefits and strictly limits working hours to avoid exploitation.

Check out these cards here: https://sojournsfairtrade.com/collections/greeting-cards/products/quilling-card

The gift cards we sell:

https://sojournsfairtrade.com/collections/greeting-cards/products/copy-of-quilling-card

Frames for the cards (you will want to keep these works of art): https://sojournsfairtrade.com/collections/greeting-cards/products/quilling-card-frames

And also earrings:

https://sojournsfairtrade.com/products/quilled-earrings?_pos=1&_sid=5a3d7f022&_ss=r&variant=32895186960431

Information and pictures from quillingcard.com, my times.com and crossroads.org