Tissage, Ouarzazate
» » Ensemble
Artisanales in cities
nationwide
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Moroccan
Modern
Textiles
» » Cooperative Tigmi,
Aït Oudinar
» » Al-Kawtar,
Marrakesh
» » Cooperative
Artisanale des
Femmes de
Marrakesh
» » Cooperative Ahilal
des Tapis, Foum Zguid
» » Sidi Ghanem,
Marrakesh
The most reliable resource in English
on Moroccan carpets is the (aptly
named) Moroccan Carpets , by
Brooke Pickering, W Russell
Pickering, and Ralph Yohe. Packed
with photos to help pinpoint the origins
and style of any carpet that
mysteriously followed you home.Handmade felt hats, slippers, coats, pillows bags or floor coverings really
put wool through the wringer: it’s dyed, boiled and literally beaten to a
pulp. Instead of being woven or sewn, felt is usually pounded with savon
noir (natural palm soap), formed into the intended shape on a mould and
allowed to dry gradually to hold its shape. Felt makers are usually found in
the wool souq in major cities, in case a bad hair day calls for a fez, or you need a shopping bag
to haul your handicrafts.
Weaving
Beyond the sea of imported harem pants and splashy synthetic jellabas in
the souqs, hand-woven Moroccan fabrics with exceptional sheen and
texture may catch your eye: nubby organic cotton from the Rif, shiny
‘cactus silk’ (soie végétale) woven with cotton and rayon from the south,
sleek Marrakesh table linens, and whisper-soft High Atlas woollen
blankets. Some lesser quality knock-offs are industrially produced, but
connoisseurs seek out the plusher nap, tighter weave, and elegant drape
of hand-woven Moroccan fabrics.
In souqs, village cooperatives and Ensemble Artisanal showrooms, you
might glimpse two to four women at a time on a loom, working on a single
piece. Men work larger looms for jellaba fabric, pushing the shuttle with
arms as they pound pedals with their feet – producing one yard of fabric
this way is a workout equivalent to running several miles while dribbling a
basketball. You can buy linens and clothing ready-made or get hand-woven
fabric by the bolt or metre, and have Moroccan decor and couture custom-
made to your specifications. Tailors can be found in every major city, but
be sure to leave enough time for the initial consult plus two fittings for
clothing.Leatherwork
Now that there’s not much call for camel saddles anymore,
Moroccan leather artisans keep busy fashioning embossed
leather book-covers and next season’s must-have handbags
with what looks like medieval dentistry tools. Down unpaved
medieval derbs , you’ll discover freshly tanned and dyed lime-
green leather sculpted into fashion-forward square poufs
(ottomans), yellow pompoms carefully stitched onto stylish
fuchsia kidskin gloves, or shocking silver leather stretched and
sewn into the ultimate glam-rock bedroom slippers. Along these leather souqs, you might spot
artisans dabbing henna onto stretched goatskin to make ‘tattooed’ leather candle-holders,
lampshades, or stand-alone artworks. If you’re in town for a couple of days, you might even
commission an artisan to make you a custom-made lambskin leather jacket, jodhpurs or
whatever else you might imagine in leather (ahem).
If it’s an authenticity trip you’re after, for men you’ll prefer the traditional yellow babouche s
(slippers) or ‘Berber Adidas’, slippers with soles made from recycled rubber tyres. Women’s
babouche s come in a broader range of colours and designs, and you may see vats of vibrant
dye used for them in tanneries in Fez. But as colourful as they may look from afar, the tanneries