<p class="title">Football scarves, shirts and... eggshell art? World Cup swag has taken a quirky turn in Vietnam where a retired schoolteacher is making mascot memorabilia from hollowed-out eggs, meticulously crafted by hand.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Nguyen Thanh Tam, 67, spends hours every day making the models, driven by his football fanaticism -- a passion shared by millions across Vietnam glued to the World Cup since the tournament kicked off in Russia earlier this month.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Most of his tiny statues are of tournament mascot Zabivaka, a wolf in sports goggles kicking a football, and he has models of football heroes Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi in the works.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Over the past few years, I have been spending my time making football mascots with eggshells as a way for me to show my love for football," Tam told AFP, speaking before a basket of eggs in his Ho Chi Minh City home.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Though not widespread in Vietnam, using eggshells in art is not unheard of: traditional lacquer works often feature inlaid eggshell in lieu of white paint.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Tam says working with the fragile shells requires sharp focus.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"I love this work because it requires me to be creative, observant, meticulous and relaxed," Tam added.</p>.<p class="bodytext">He first developed the unique hobby around Christmas in 2002, when he was looking for the right material to make a Santa statue with his 13-year-old students.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Tam decided that an eggshell perfectly captured Saint Nick's rotund belly.</p>.<p class="bodytext">He eventually married his passion for crafts and football and started making World Cup mascots during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Now he has about 1,000 of the small figurines scattered throughout his apartment, some commemorating the 2016 Rio Olympics and Euro 2016 in France.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Others are of celebrities -- Charlie Chaplin, Barack Obama, and Gangnam Style's PSY all feature in his collection -- or birds and animals, like his porcine series to mark the Year of the Pig in 2019.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Tam says the biggest challenge is finding the right egg shape to fit the creation, so he has expanded beyond chicken eggs to include ostrich and quail.</p>.<p class="bodytext">He has also widened his repertoire of egg recipes to use up all the yolks and whites he discards to make his art.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Tam doesn't sell the delicate dolls, preferring instead to keep them on display to wow his visitors.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"I make eggshell art to satisfy my passion, not for commercial purposes," he said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">He has already received a nod from Vietnam's record centre for the most eggshell art created -- believed to be a niche category -- though he has global ambitions.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"I hope one day my eggshell art will be recognised as a world record," he said with a smile.</p>
<p class="title">Football scarves, shirts and... eggshell art? World Cup swag has taken a quirky turn in Vietnam where a retired schoolteacher is making mascot memorabilia from hollowed-out eggs, meticulously crafted by hand.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Nguyen Thanh Tam, 67, spends hours every day making the models, driven by his football fanaticism -- a passion shared by millions across Vietnam glued to the World Cup since the tournament kicked off in Russia earlier this month.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Most of his tiny statues are of tournament mascot Zabivaka, a wolf in sports goggles kicking a football, and he has models of football heroes Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi in the works.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Over the past few years, I have been spending my time making football mascots with eggshells as a way for me to show my love for football," Tam told AFP, speaking before a basket of eggs in his Ho Chi Minh City home.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Though not widespread in Vietnam, using eggshells in art is not unheard of: traditional lacquer works often feature inlaid eggshell in lieu of white paint.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Tam says working with the fragile shells requires sharp focus.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"I love this work because it requires me to be creative, observant, meticulous and relaxed," Tam added.</p>.<p class="bodytext">He first developed the unique hobby around Christmas in 2002, when he was looking for the right material to make a Santa statue with his 13-year-old students.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Tam decided that an eggshell perfectly captured Saint Nick's rotund belly.</p>.<p class="bodytext">He eventually married his passion for crafts and football and started making World Cup mascots during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Now he has about 1,000 of the small figurines scattered throughout his apartment, some commemorating the 2016 Rio Olympics and Euro 2016 in France.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Others are of celebrities -- Charlie Chaplin, Barack Obama, and Gangnam Style's PSY all feature in his collection -- or birds and animals, like his porcine series to mark the Year of the Pig in 2019.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Tam says the biggest challenge is finding the right egg shape to fit the creation, so he has expanded beyond chicken eggs to include ostrich and quail.</p>.<p class="bodytext">He has also widened his repertoire of egg recipes to use up all the yolks and whites he discards to make his art.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Tam doesn't sell the delicate dolls, preferring instead to keep them on display to wow his visitors.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"I make eggshell art to satisfy my passion, not for commercial purposes," he said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">He has already received a nod from Vietnam's record centre for the most eggshell art created -- believed to be a niche category -- though he has global ambitions.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"I hope one day my eggshell art will be recognised as a world record," he said with a smile.</p>