HO CHI MINH CITY – Mr. Hong Duc, 34, in Tan Phu district, receives about 250 orders of chibi-style sculptures every month, selling for between 20$ and 200$.

For the past ten years, Mr. Le Nguyen Hong Duc has been working with the work of creating clay portraits, in the chibi style at the request of customers.

In 2012, when just graduated from university, Duc worked as an accountant for half a year and then quit because it was not suitable and low salary. “Before, I had a hobby of making handmade things, I went to a fair to see a clay statue for sale, so I bought it to practice molding. I chose the chibi style because it was a trend at that time,” said the 34-year-old man.

After a month of learning on the Internet and tinkering with how to mold, Duc tried to sell online the first products, chibi statues of Korean actors, for 2$ per product.

Receiving feedback from customers, a few months later he opened a workshop with a capital of 3 million VND, just enough to rent a small room. At first, the revenue was just enough to pay for room rent, buy raw materials, and pay wages.

Currently, Duc is the owner of a chibi statue workshop with nearly 10 employees on Tran Van On the street, Tan Phu district.

After receiving images from customers, the first stage is to mix clay colors. “The color must be mixed with the soil in a certain ratio to ensure the closest to the original image. Every day, the factory uses up 3 kg of raw material,” said employee Le Thi Tu, 22 years old.

Studied accounting but has a passion for handmade goods, so Tu chose to work in a workshop because it suits his forte. Each employee here is responsible for a specialty such as shaping, drawing, making clothes, taking care of customers…

The owner of the workshop and everyone created the limbs, head, body, hair… for the statue. “The most difficult to shape are statues with difficult postures such as yoga, soccer, dancing…”, Duc said.

“Drawing the face is an important step, especially the eyes to create the image of the statue. It took me more than half a month to practice drawing so that the face resembles the customer’s photo the most,” said Pham Trang Tu, 19 years old.

According to Tu, unlike the usual chibi statues with their characteristic large faces and eyes, the traditional style needs more realistic facial expressions to resemble the real character, but still has the cuteness of this genre.

Making clothes is one of the last steps for the chibi to take shape. Clay is laminated through a machine to make clothes for the statue.

Each type of costume needs a different way of shaping clay. The most difficult to shape are the clothes such as bridal dresses, evening dresses, antique clothes…

On average, a statue takes about 4 hours to complete. The chibi statue left in normal conditions takes a day to harden, then it will be sprayed with paint to waterproof and not fade. The factory can make more than 10 products a day.

Each month, the German factory produces about 250 products, with prices ranging from 20$ to 200$ per statue. Most guests order chibi statues of themselves or family, friends, and spouses…

Statue of a couple in wedding costumes in the form of a godly chibi for 8 million VND. Below is a statue of two grandparents costing 4 million VND, housed in a glass frame with lights attached.

The portrait statue is assembled between two photos at the request of the customer for 4 million VND. According to the author, each divine chibi product can only resemble real photos from 60 to 80%.

“This is currently the main product of the factory, accounting for most of the order value. I will try to improve my skills to make the statue as realistic as possible,” Duc said.

Traditional chibi clay figurines with big eyes and cute and cheerful faces are cheaper than the divine form. The factory owner revealed that the monthly profit is about 2000$.

 (According to vnexpress )