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Sunday, September 4, 2011

Hermes Festival Des Metiers - Celebrating Hermes Craftsmen

My family and I went for this event on Saturday when it just started! It was really an eye-opening event and you can tell how much work goes into the creation of a Hermes product.




 Craftsman making the saddle



She drew and painted these on the spot. 


Lots & lots of work goes into the makings of a watch omg. The parts are SO DAMN TINY omg.







Pouring paint onto the stencil (details of process found below)







Printing Hermes Scarfs

Now the entire process takes really long because you need to wait for each layer to dry first before you can put the next layer on top. Basically the blue thing is like a stencil, the craftsman will then put paint on top of it (the colour for the nxt layer), align the "stencil" properly and then use that huge swiping thing to transfer the colour onto the silk piece at the bottom. You've to keep doing this till the scarf is finished then steam it so that the colours seep through the silk!

The guy at this "station" was really funny and humorous! He'll explain the whole process to you and take questions if you ask him. He said the entire process used to be all done by hand but now only the pushing of the stencil on top of the scarf is done by machine (cos the thing's really heavy and the craftsmen will have lots of back probs if its not mechanised) but the rest is still done by hand!

And he says its reallyyyyy impt to conserve the environment because the butterflies that produce these silk ONLY feed on mulberry leaves so if envt destroyed -> no mulberry leaves = no Hermes products haha. He literally explained it this way


He's scraping off the excess paint back into the paint buckets






Making a Hermes bag

This woman was really friendly haha she'll speak and joke with the crowd around her! There's a translator stationed next to each of the craftsman to facilitate you asking qns etc. Someone asked how she ended up working at Hermes and she said during her sch time, she went to work part-time at Hermes for about a year and aft she graduated, Hermes recruited her. She says they look at how you sew, how you handle the materials, and that they'll send you for training courses after they've recruited you.

She said because now she has more time (ie doing the back in Spore) she's trying out new methods of making the bag and hoping to perfect/find alt methods to refine her technique. Someone asked her if the bag will have a "Made in Singapore" printed on it because it is made in Spore (personally I thought this was a good question hahaha and a funny one!) but she kinda didnt answer the qn and only said the person buying the bag will be v lucky because the bag's travelled to Spore and to France. Also the bag may come back to Spore's stores because they have quite a few orders from Singapore.

There were quite a lot of people there, especially at the scarf section and the bag section. But generally, people move away so you can see what's going on! If you have the time, I highly suggest going down to see how exquisite it is! Truly an eye-opening experience!!

Hermes Festival Des Metiers (Festival of Crafts)
Paragon
Free

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