miscellaneous marrakech

sorry it’s been so long since my last post, but with classes starting again, i have found myself a little busy.
here are a few miscellaneous pictures of my time in marrakech:

coopérative de tissage

traditionally fondouks were places where artisans or merchants would set up their workshops and studios on the bottom floor from which they would conduct their daily business, and they would inhabit the top two floors. nowadays, they don’t quite function as they once did, but you can still manage to find some remnants around the outskirts of the marrakech medina.  one such place is the coopérative de tissage, or fabric collective.

now, an artists collective is a good way to see the artisans actually working in their craft, and allows you to buy straight from them rather than a third party in a souk.  they often have set prices for their goods and it is guaranteed that a portion of the profits will go to the crafts person.  we were lucky enough to find one where our ‘guide’ was very knowledgable and helpful (but i can’t remember his name!). he explained the whole process of weaving to us, as well as describing a bit about the people that work there, such as that it is a family business and you can currently find three generations there.  having arrived just in time for afternoon mint tea (perfect timing on our part), we were invited to a cup.  i can’t really stress how much tea plays a part in their lives, we would oftentimes see people walking through the streets with a teapot and glasses bringing it back to their place of work.

i realize of course that they give you tours so you feel more obliged to buy something at the end…  i know this, i wasn’t born yesterday… but they make a very compelling argument, and the textiles are so pretty!  especially when your new scarf has all the colors of the atlas mountain region.

djemaa el fna square

you can’t go to marrakech without finding yourself in djemaa el fna square… even when you aren’t looking for it, people will walk past you, point and tell you how to get there (almost as if you have wandered out of the tourist parameters and must be corralled back to the designated places).

having that said, it’s a must see.  it’s where you find snake charmers, fresh-squeezed orange juice stands, henna tattoo artists, storytellers, music circles, dried fruit and nut stands, monkey walkers, cross dressing belly dancers and people with chickens on their head.  then add, on top of all of that, the food carts that roll in around five o’clock every day and set up shop, calling out in four different languages to every passerby that their cart (insert number) is the best!
and there you have it.

i would definitely recommend trying one of the food stalls, and even more than that, getting an afternoon mint tea at café argana, where you can sit on the terrace and overlook all of the carts roll in and set up.

our last night in marrakech we found ourselves once again in ‘the big square’ walking around and taking it all in one last time.  we noticed a large group of locals standing around in a circle which immediately piqued our interest.  it was only a matter of thirty seconds or so before we were dragged into the middle and given front row seats to a music circle.  at first we had no idea what was going on, but we deduced that the band refused to play until they got enough tips.  here is what our money bought us:

souk teinturies

the dyer’s souk in marrakech was a must see for us.  we arrived in the morning to see the men with blue arms dying and hanging the fabric from every possible inch of space they could find.  they used a variety of natural dyes in order to get such vibrant colors. we then headed up to the roof of a nearby building in order to get an aerial view of the fabric drying in the sun.

everyday patterns

i will admit that i went to morocco in order to be inspired design-wise by every object.  instead, i found a lot of the objects were junk and had become mass-produced due to tourism and other such reasons.  however, i found what i was looking for in the tile and woodwork that can be found in any of the great buildings, but also in the randomness of places… the communal fountain that you you would see people washing in, the forgotten door at the end of an alleyway, the ceiling of a hammam.  here are a few patterns i found.

there was one store that we stumbled into which did carry beautifully embroidered clothing and stunning bead work… only to find out that it was owned by a french man, go figure. anyways, they carry home products as well as clothing and they have a website. if you find yourself in morocco you should discover it too.

akbar delights

the loom upstairs

since we have studied textile design, part of our trip was devoted to seeing various treatments and weavings of textiles.  in essaouira, one man invited us in to see his loom, situated in the upstairs loft of a ten by ten foot room.  it was evident that he took great pride in his work, and wanted to share that with us… so we climbed the ladder and took a peek at how he spends his days.

again, i took a short video, but it really doesn’t capture everything that is going on with the machine as it happens….  there wasn’t a lot of room to move around.  he is basically tying the string to a spool (shuttle) which will be shot back and forth in order to create the weft part of the cloth, the warp strings are the taunt strings that are tied before the weaving can begin.

an auction of treasureless treasures

when you find yourself to be one of only two girls (and you are with the other one) amongst a large group of men standing around, you very quickly start subconsciously assessing the situation around you.  things you might consider are time of day, the country you are in, just how many people there are etc, etc.

the answers to my questions:
middle of the day
essaouira, morocco
approximately 100 men
a courtyard
a very large pile of random objects
everyone standing around considering the large pile of random objects
two girls watching everyone stand around staring at the large pile of random objects
my camera

after about five minutes or so, the auction started.

each item was paraded around the circle a few times, sometimes stopping to be examined, sometimes to be sold.  there were shoes, tv sets, toys and my favorite, an opened umbrella…opened, just to make sure you knew that it was a nice umbrella.

this was one of two times in morocco that someone grabbed me and led me into a large crowded circle so that i could see the events close up.  the other being a music circle at place jemaa el fna in marrakech.

if i had known even a little bit of arabic, i probably would have bid on that umbrella.

thuya wood

essaouira is known for it’s thuya wood, which can be found as tables, boxes, trays, furniture and so on and so forth.  the problem is that it is now endangered due to the fact that it is basically found in every tourist souvenir shop.  knowing this, i headed to the thuya artisan collective which is reported to replenish whatever it is they use.  one artist showed us how he created the intricate inlaid boxwork that you find everywhere.  it takes years and years of practice, he had been doing it for some twenty odd years, and it was incredible.  unfortunately i didn’t get video of that, but i did manage to capture the artisan collective in a very shaky, quite anticlimactic pan of the courtyard…. but it’s video nonetheless!

they did everything in that courtyard, from cutting the wood, to making the object, creating the patina to putting your new jewelry box in a bag and sending you on your way.

first stop : essaouira

our first stop in morocco was a small fishing port town called essaouira. about a three hour bus ride from marrakech, this town served as a nice transitional stop before we were caught up in the whirlwind that awaited us in marrakech.  i was told that each town is characterized by a color, and essaouira is undoubtedly blue.  white walls with blue doors and shutters are found throughout the city.

essaouira is intrinsically tied to the ocean, so it is only fitting that the boats found in the port take on the blue color as well.  every day the fishermen bring in their bounty around three o’clock, to which you can watch and pick out a fish to be grilled in one of the many makeshift stands that line the port… which is exactly what we did on our first day there.

wandering the streets and alleyways of essaouira, you are constantly finding small artisan workshops.  people occupy the smallest of spaces weaving, sewing, making inlaid wooden boxes… but i will tell you more about that some other time.  i was struck however, by one woman who was making rafia shoes, and the speed at which her hand was moving was mesmerizing, you can see it in the photograph i took of her.

everywhere you looked there was color, an overwhelming array of smells and sounds…in fact i would say i was accosted by smells and sounds, because there is no way to avoid them.  within the span of an hour you might encounter brilliantly colored spices and pigments where you share the traditional mint tea with the shop owner (jokingly called berber whiskey throughout morocco- a joke everyone told as if they were the first one to ever tell it), a live chicken market and a local auction of seemingly very random and trivial objects (oh, i have pictures).  you could find yourself rolling up your pants to avoid stepping in the gutter which runs through the middle of the narrow streets, only to find yourself five minutes later walking up three flights of stairs to the most beautiful terrace overlooking the ocean with live music being played…

…and like i said, this was a primer for what we would encounter throughout the rest of our trip.  so here are a few more photographs of things i saw in essaouira…

…and i’m back

i‘m back from morocco!

it was full of sights and smells and colors, all of which i am hoping to share with you… but i need to organize my photos (and thoughts) a bit.