Silk painting workshop «Côn trùng» (Insects)

   Silk behaves nothing like paper or canvas: pigment spreads and soaks on its own, and the skill is learning to negotiate with it rather than control it. Over three mornings you leave with a small framed silk painting you made yourself — an object, not an exercise.

   This edition takes insects as its subject: beetles, cicadas, butterfly wings, which suit the material unusually well since both depend on thinness and translucency. Hồng Xiêm walks you through the whole sequence, from preparing the frame and stretching the silk to colour-bleeding and line work, until you can feel the quality Vietnamese painters call the "transparency" of the material.

   The course runs three sessions of two hours, and covers:

• — The full silk-painting process, from frame preparation and stretching to laying colour
• — How pigment soaks and spreads across a silk surface
• — Completing one personal silk painting, mounted in a wooden frame

   It is open to any adult curious about the material — no entry level is required, and never having held a brush is fine. The fee covers the whole course rather than single sessions, so plan on three consecutive Saturday mornings.

   The studio occupies the third floor of a house in Ngõ Hàng Bún, in the former Ba Đình district near the Long Biên side of the centre: a small, quiet room built for spending a morning painting. Sessions are taught in Vietnamese, though silk technique is largely demonstrated rather than explained, and the class is small enough to follow closely. Questions go to [email protected], where Ms Phương Anh handles bookings.

   Sign up through the form if you want a place — the room does not hold many easels.