Our workshop is at no. 31, DM6, Van Phuc craft village, an old silk village in Ha Dong, Hanoi. The morning here has the sound of looms carrying from the houses next door, the smell of tea from the shop at the top of the lane, and the particular rhythm of a place where people work right where they live.
We chose to come here for that rhythm. A craft village teaches you things an industrial park would struggle to teach, such as waiting, redoing, and the fact that a product with human hands in it is always a little different from one piece to the next.
The morning belongs to preparation
A day at the workshop begins with the tasks nobody sees in a product photograph. Wiping cups. Checking each cinnamon cup to see whether the turned line is smooth and the lid fits. Setting the cotton wick in the middle of the cup and adjusting it to stand straight, because a wick half a centimetre off will make the whole jar burn lopsided later on.
Only then comes the wax. Soy wax blended by ZUNGZA is warmed slowly, and this slowness is where we are most patient. Essential oils composed by ZUNGZA go in at a particular range of heat, then comes the pouring, and the pouring hand has to be steady for the wax surface to be smooth afterwards.
The weather walks into the workshop every day too. On damp Hanoi days, with high humidity, the wax cools in a different way and the wax surface can come out a little different from a dry day. We adjust the rhythm of work to the sky, and some days we pour only half of what we planned.
The afternoon belongs to waiting
After pouring, the jars are lined up in rows on the table and left there. We do nothing with them at all. The wax needs time to cool evenly from the outside in, and if we get impatient and take them to be wrapped early, the wax surface will mark. This stretch of waiting is longer than the making, and it is the hardest part for anyone new to the workshop.
While waiting, the packing table runs its own work. Lining paper is cut, boxes are folded, letters are written by hand for gift orders. There are afternoons when we sit writing cards to customers and reading their notes again, and that is when this workshop sees most clearly who it is working for.
At the end of the day, the jars that pass are wrapped and the ones whose wax surface is uneven are set aside. Those set aside we keep for use in the workshop and at home, because they still burn well and still smell good; they are simply not yet fine enough to go as a gift to someone.
If you are in Hanoi and would like to see this work, the workshop door is open and you can come by. Here you can light one and try it, hear each direction of scent, hold the cinnamon bark cup in your hand, and take home what you chose the same day.
A few questions you often send us
Where is the ZUNGZA workshop
At no. 31, DM6, Van Phuc craft village, Ha Dong, Hanoi. This is where we work and also where we sell in person.
Can I come to the workshop
You can, and it is best to message a little in advance so there is someone to receive you properly, especially on days when the whole workshop is in a pouring round.
How long does a candle jar take to finish
The making is quick; it is the waiting to cool that takes long, so each round of candles goes through several days before it is wrapped. We keep that rhythm because a wax surface needs its own time.
Read more the way to the workshop in Van Phuc, the story of handcraft going to the US, the EU and Australia, and the story of a candle jar that begins with a soybean.