Marrakesh – walking and shopping in the Souks in the Medina

 

 

Last time I was staying in the Medina and decided to embrace the souks and getting to know them. Walking through the souks, you often end up getting lost, however after a couple of days I managed to find my way around a bit and also found myself connecting the dots - so to speak - between different areas and finding myself unexpectedly close to ‘home’ and/or not a long way away. What a sense of achievement, feeling you getting to grips with the city, you are starting to know it. I love it!
:-)
Going back to your favourite shop or café/restaurant. I tend to stay away from the big touristy restaurants. And, as I have allergies and do not eat meat, it is rather restrictive where I eat. Nevertheless I found some brilliant places to eat or take away food.

 

I suppose when you first go though the souks they all seems very similar. However once you get some firm points you can move from there. You need to believe that all connects with each other and eventually you’ll get close and where you want to be. It seems a nice, clear map of the souks is unobtainable. Perhaps it is all part of the trick to let you get lost in them, like in our supermarkets where they change the shelves/food aisles layout to ‘encourage’ you to buy things you usually do not need or want.
Same in Marrakesh, either that or to give work to the guides, official or not, who then get paid, therefore making it another way to boost the local economy. The souks are a city within the city (the Medina is). The souks are  differently named and the names are defined by the trade based in and around that area. So you get the ‘babusher’ for the leather slippers and the one for the dyers, and so forth. Which is kind of handy if you know what you want to buy and you can aim straight to that ‘quartier’ and have plenty to choose from.

   

It is harmless to go through the various alleys and street and squares. The trick is not to be lured into all the shops and only when you feel like it. I often find the one that do not harass you and drag you in, are the best. You need to follow your instinct and I found a lot of very nice people that have a love for what they sell and make. I like mostly the artisans, not so much the shop keepers who are just trying to shift another item. In all or the majority of the souks you find motorcycles speeding through despite the crowds. There are also the occasional tricycle and lots of bicycles and carts. The worse are the motorcycles as they produce huge amount of fumes, which I find pretty toxic when inhaled. Not sure if this is due to the mix of petrol & oil they use – different from ours – and/or also to the large number of motorcycles in such confined and enclosed spaces that makes it for a not very nice air quality to breath in, as well as having to be pretty much on the alert as they spring out from nowhere behind you!

   

As I mentioned shopkeepers do their best to get you into their shop and buy. They start the conversation with ‘bonjour, comment se va?’ (Good morning, how are you?) and it is handy if you know a few phrases of French to be able to reply. Although my 20 year old ‘Moyen’ level French is now pretty rusty, I am told my pronunciation is good, it helps, I suppose, that I speak Italian. However it makes it complicated as I need to translate from English to Italian, and then from Italian to French as most words and phrases are similar. Nevertheless I've often wished I could speak it better, especially when bartering so I have just bought an online a refreshers course on CD to listen in the car, I reckon 30+ minutes a day, it will do the trick and put it in my ear and refresh both my vocabulary and phrases. Will let you know.

Souks and sellers

Anyway, back to what we were discussing... Marrakeshi souks sellers. Even though I respond to the ‘Bonjour’ I often keep on going. Some of the more pushy shopkeepers shout at you ‘just looking’ hoping, in so doing, to invite you in their shop… I think they do not fully understand the meaning of the phrase… do not let me put you off window shopping! It is the best part. You need to be firm if you do not want to buy. They will trick you and kind of making you feel guilty. Do not be fooled! You don’t want to buy, you do not buy. No matter how far in your negotiations you have gone, or how many bags, shoes, carpets, etc. they have got down from the shelves. Enjoy the experience. I tend to ask prices first and also look at the quality. Once I decide the shop I want to buy from I get in and chat with them.


One of the things that drive me mad in Morocco is when you ask about the price and they reply to you with another question: ‘How many?’ Arggghhhh! Even though it would make sense that the more you buy the better the price, many years ago I found it not necessarily true when I found myself in a small Moroccan town. I wanted some of the lovely colourful typical bowls and set about asking prices. It followed a sort of tag of war. Finally I was given some prices, different colour had different prices. So, as I was going about choosing some bowls, I was mentally adding up the price. At the end I put them on the table and my idea was to bargain – as that is the norm – however the guy quoted me a price higher than what I had totalled up having used his prices - given to me a few minutes before – so I left without buying anything. I found having a base price is essential, and then you can decide if you want more than one and so forth before starting haggling. It is also the case of what you think it is worth it.

Last time I was in Marrakesh however I was ‘done’ on a small bottle of Sprite. I asked for the price at a small bar/shop and was told 6 dirham. Fair enough, I knew a similar size bottle of water was a little bit cheaper so I accepted the price in good faith, paid and left. Once out of the shop I cleaned the top and side before opening it and ‘oh and behold’ there was a pre-printed price on the plastic bottle: 3 dirham!! What could I do!?! Annoying though. I did not go back as I was a few paces away from the shop and had already opened it. It wasn’t so much the money, really pennies, it was the principle!
You have been warned and have lots of fun as you go around.

  

Moroccan humour or trying it on? Little artisan man

This is where cultural barriers might make it hard to communicate...

Last year (2011) my friend and I spent a w/e in Marrakech and to this day we are still wondering if the guy in the video tried it on or it was really his ‘Moroccan’ sense of humour.

My friend was looking for Xmas presents and wasn’t very impressed with the Moroccan selling style and took the view of approaching and buying only from people/sellers that were not harassing her. 
This is how we came across this artisan, who very quietly was going on with his business in a little alley of the Marrakechi Medina. 
We went around his place of business in the course of two days. Yes, no, yes, maybe, shall I buy it, or maybe not? My friend found the choice of goods available in Marrakech overwhelming and making a decision on what to buy & who for became a major decision-making choice (which was driving me mad!!)... Eventually she decided on some wood boxes.
Goods were checked, price agreed, goods wrapped and paid. Then little artisan man decided to produce a little something which – according to him – was a purveyor of good luck if placed in the bedroom (we never got to discover how it would bring good luck!). I stood aside, not wanting to be a disruptive element in my friend's purchasing process or the carving of such ‘lucky’ charm. 
Once all was concluded, items purchased, charm carved I was all ready to move on. ..But no, little artisan man decided he wanted me to have a lucky charm too; he insisted I sat down next to him and watch him as he was doing the carving. 
My friend and I swapped seats. As I started watching him I thought I might as well make a short video of it. I asked little artisan man for permission to film him and he agreed, so I proceeded to take the video. While he was carving various people passed by and stopped to take pictures. As you will see from the video all was amicable and relaxed.....

(Now watch the video)

You can imagine my shock at his request! Hence the sudden termination of the video as I stood up and left, soon to be followed by my friend – who told me later - had her jaw to the floor by the surprise of the request!

Our next stop was another artisan, known by me for his leather notebooks, and where my friend had decided she was going to purchase some lovely boxes covered in brightly coloured leather. We got to this other shop a few lanes away in the Medina and a few minutes after we got there little artisan man (the one of the wood carving) joined us and gave me the lucky charm he had finished carving in the meantime.  And all seriously he told me "it was all a joke"!

To this day I am not sure if it was a joke or not.   Watching the video and listening to the conversation again, I realised he asked for Euros and not Dirham (Moroccan currency).   So maybe it was a joke. On the other side why not saying something right away as he saw our reaction? And all the time he was ever so serious! I am still not convinced it was a joke....but maybe...? If it was, it certainly show the difference in cultures, even in the way we joke and make humour, as we certainly did not take it as a joke!

You can make your mind up and let me k now what you think.

Textile co-operative in a Tunisian village

I love reading travel guides of the countries I visit, 'Lonely Planet' and 'The Rough Guide' are usually best for me. Anyway, in one of these or both I found that in a Tunisian village - not far from where I was staying - there was a textile's co-operative where locals were working and producing products for the local and foreign markets. Even better, the village - Beni Khiar - had a sunday market! Yuppiee!! And so I set out to go to this village to find the co-operative.  I prefer to travel with public transport as a. it is cheaper; b. you get to meet the locals, see how they live/behave, etc... Sunday buses in Tunisia are not as frequent as other days of the week (nothing different from UK or other parts of EU, as far as I know), which meant my bus was late and when I got to Nabeul I saw the bus for Beni Khiar slip under my nose. :-( ... and the next bus was a couple of hours later!
So I set out to look for a taxi (I am not very fond of taxi or their drivers ...ssssssh, don't tell anyone!) and - having found one - I got in and shortly after we arrived in Beni Khiar. I must say, it was not very far at all - if you know where you are going - however a little bit too far to walk in the hot sun, even at 10.30am. Amasingly, although just outside the main town of Nabeul, capital of the Cape Bon area, Beni Khiar was so remote and rural!

Beni Khiar

As I said earlier, Beni Khiar is not big and it is on the outskirts of Nabeul, almost following on from it. When I arrived, the market was in full swing. Nothing different from what I'd seen in Beni Khalleb a week or so before - more on this in another blog - only smaller and less interesting. Still, I went through it - without being mobbed - quite nicely.



  

Market & Mosque in Beni Khiar



Police Station & market crowd

Having a chat while shopping

   Local wares  Portico in Beni Khiar

 

 Shop holder and display

 

My reason for being in Beni Khiar was to find this co-op that I had read about on the travel guides. they said it was a place famous for wool and its weavers and that the co-operative was also selling its products directly.

The taxi driver dropped me in the middle of the village, not really knowing where the co-op was or caring about it. Very helpful! I started in the direction the taxi driver had indicated and soon found myself nearing the end of the village by the main street. Armed with my guides and phrase books (even my broken French was at times too much for the locals which only spoke Tunisian lingo) I approached some women in a shop. After much confabulating among themselves, they indicated back to the centre of the village, towards the market.
Back I walked, when I got back to the main square I saw the police station! What better place to ask for directions!?! So I went in ...

 Police Station in Beni Khiar

The ladies in the shop had indicated down the road. At the main square the road split hence the decision to pop in the Police Station. Nothing like you would expect. A large cavernous bare room with a wooden table by the door (for the breeze) and two people (cannot remember if they wore uniform) smoking and chatting and not terribly interested when they saw me entering...after much talking (among themselves) and asking other passers by and insistance (mine) that this co-op must be in their village as the tourist guides said so; finally, one of them remembered that there was a place with a textile co-op, they indicated the way and after more asking, I found the place I was looking for!
The walk to this place took me past many butchers shops, the 1st one I nearly hit the head of a huge cow's head hanging by the entrance!

Local butcher & cow's head

As a non-meat eater I was not too impressed, and lets not talk about the smell of dead meat coming out of the fully opened fronted butcher' shops!

Wool on roof drying, approaching textile co-op 

 

The Textile Co-operative

It is a shame I did not take a picture of the outside (this here is a scan from their leaflet).

 

  Outside of co-op in Beni Khiar

There was a large wall at both sides, with some sort of mural showing the looms and materials... however somehow it was not as striking and did not stand out, hence missed (as being at the beginning of the village, I had gone by it in the taxi earlier on). There were no gates, so I approached.

The ground was a garden full of orange and other citrus trees. It reminded me of an old school

Orange trees in the garden approaching textile co-op in Beni Khiar

 

in the 60's - a bit decrepit - and I was expecting to be challenged any minute as a trespasser.   Instead, I reached a couple of buildings, one with a door opened, which I approached tentatively (see picture "Outside of co-op in Beni Khiar"). Walking in, I felt like an alien and also felt like stepping into a time machine, back in time. Inside the building there weren't many people, I asked if that was the co-op and a young-ish man came out of one of the rooms and - speaking part English and part French - we established I was in the right place. Having asked if I could look around, my host asked why I wanted to see the place. I told him the co-op was mentioned in my tourist guide and I was a tourist and interested, as I had come over specifically for this place. I am sure the young man and the other men around him thought I was mad! Anyway, he happily told me I could go and have a look upstairs and, when coming back down, he would show me the warehouse (which turned out to be a small room downstairs).   I walked upstairs and I found myself in a large room (the whole length and width of the building) full of looms, 15-18 of them.

 

 Looms at the textile co-op

The old fashioned looms were fascinating. In the room were ... men working at their loom and weaving various types of cloths. Some incredibly attractive to the eye (the cloths not the men! :-) ). 

 

 Man at his loom

Absolutely fascinating! Once again it was like stepping in the time machine and being back to the industrial revolution! How incredible to think that in this day and age people still make cloths in the old fashion way!!

Typical cloths used for local coats

Apparently the co-operative was set up in 1957 (as the leaflet I was later given told me). The men at the looms were really friendly and not at all bothered by my being there, they kept on weaving and said 'good morning' as I was wondering. They were also kind enough to let me take pictures (a lot of people in the Muslim world believe having a picture taken deprives you of something [soul]), this meant I was able to walk around taking picture and videos (see later) through the room.

At the end of the room, sitting on the floor was a very old man, he was working at a large sort of wheel - initially I thought it was a primitive fan! Infact it was something completely different.

 Wheel and wool reels

He had lots of small cones, no longer than 10-15 cm and hollow inside. He put one on something pointed, sticking out of the wheel, he then wrang around it 4 different coloured threads - coming from wool cones sitting by his side - and with the help of the wheel/fan he spun the 4 threads together on the cone that was acting as a pipette. I suppose he was creating a twisted thread that was then used on the looms to weave the cloths. He seemed totally oblivious to me - or totally ignored me - I tried to film the whole scene... it is not the best as I was trying to be very inconspicuos.



 



In another part of the room, behind some looms and weavers, there were more of these 'wheels' and another man doing the same thing. He was almost hidden away.

As I was walking back downstairs I saw one of these wheel closer and it was made of wood and what looked like some kind of skin tightly stretched around it (see picture "Wheel and wool reels"). Very ingenous!

 

Downstairs, my 'guide' showed me the storeroom (rather than warehouse) as promised, which was full of types of materials, rugs, bed covers, satchels, cushions etc.
 

 Traditional overcoat  Satchel bags

 

 Texiles produced at the Co-operative

 

 

I would have loved to buy a bit of everything. Some of the colours were very bright and fetching. However because they were made of wool and linen, and bulky - had to be mindful of the weight allowance on the plane - I was only able to buy three cushion covers (now sold in our online shop).
 

 Blue  Tunisian co-op cushion - green

I do hope that I will be able to get more stock if there is request for these. [I was told they do not have internet, so all communications need be done by mobile (hopefully) and snail mail] I'd love to be able to stock more of their products, they were lovely and some incredibly attractive!

 

I was told that the co-operative is mainly operated by men. Men weave and use the looms. Women work from home and - at my incredulous question of where the looms could fit in their small homes or did they have a small version of it - I was told the women cut, sew with colourful stitches and embroider creating the end products. All their products are produced manually.

Vegetable Silk (also known as Sabra, Cactus or Agave Silk)

If you search on the web for cactus silk or vegetable silk it is likely you get presented with a lot of silk plants!

 

Having purchased some cushions and a pouffe in Vegetable Silk from my Moroccan supplier, I was curious to find out more. It took me some time.

Cactus silk is also known as Agave silk, or vegetable silk or vegan silk and also as Sabra silk, the Moroccan name.

Some of the products made with this fiber are certainly different. Wherever you are going in Morocco, you are coming across little shops packed with tons of thread in myriad of colours,  shiny, bright colours with which buttons and trims finish off the traditional ‘djellaba’.

 

Man wearing traditional djellaba



 

Vegetable Silk Cushion

Vegetable Silk Pouffe

 

However there are also items made in this vegetable-vegan silk in much more subtle colours and the end result is of understated and classic yet modern items of soft furnishing seen above.

 

I am running ahead of myself.  Let’s start at the beginning.

 

“Sabra” Cactus-Silk

Cactus silk or Sabra silk is a luxurious fabric made from the Agave Cactus in the capital of Morocco, Fes.

Jardin Majorelle, Marrakech - Cactus and agave plants

 

      Jardin Majorelle, Marrakech - Cactus and agave

 

Also known as Cactus silk, Sabra silk is a natural fiber harvested from sustainable sources of Saharan Aloe Vera Cactus (the Aloe Vera plant being part of the Agave family).

The fabric is a 100% vegetable silk blend of extracted filaments from the aloe cactus grown in Morocco. It is sought for its quality, strength and beauty since millennia. The process to produce sabra silk has not changed for centuries. Once the Cactus plant is collected from the long agave plants, the long spiky leaves are crushed and the fibres washed and hammered, then the leaves are soaked in water to separate the fibres & filaments and then these are spun and woven to make "silk thread" which are then dyed in different colours. The textile produced has a high elasticity and this makes Sabra-Silk free of wrinkles.

You might have come across - when walking through the narrow lanes of the Medina in Marrakech –men threading fine, almost invisible, fibers on spools. These are then twisted into thread by small battery powered twisters and tacked along the walls of the medina while they were being created. The colourful threads of the cactus silk are then sold in spools.

 

Cactus silk threads

 

Sabra Silk is hand-loomed in Morocco [See a picture of a weaver at work] and some of the products are created with strips of the silks alternate with camel's wool. Some have Chenille, and cotton yarn in contrasting colours which enhances the amazingly vibrant, almost metallic shine of the cloths. This long and time consuming process makes some of its products (cushions, rugs, textile) very expensive and at the same time pretty unique.

 

Silk Napkin Ties covered with Vegetable silk threads

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Items made of cactus/sabra silk can be washed at 30 degrees or dry-cleaned. It is safe to iron them with a low steam iron programme, although as they are almost wrinkle-free, this is hardly necessary...

If interested in the items shown in this Blog, please visit our shop on www.craftsoftheworldonline.com .

Mulberry Paper – a brief history of its making

Mulberry paper is also called and known as Saa paper.

It is made of the bark of the mulberry tree which is a common tree growing is south-east Asia, Thailand and Pakistan. The tree grows very quickly and it is almost a weed. Its flowers produce a high content of pollen and are hard to escape if you are in the area at the time of their flowering and suffer from pollen allergy.
The mulberry tree is the main source of food for the silkworm, which produce high quality silk. The silkworms feed on the leaves of the tree. The paper is made from the bark of the tree and its leaves when the plant is matured and lost its appeal to the worms. Because it grows so quickly, the plant grows through a full circle in a very short time.
Bark and leaves are soaked in water and made softer. It then gets boiled in salted water to break down the cellulose cells in the plant. After a few hours boiling the mix is rinsed leaving the fibres with which the paper will be made.
The soaking and boiling of the fibres leaves them in a mixture of thickness that is then sorted in types: rough, delicate… and colours to produce different products. The delicate parts will come to form paper and the rough bits will be used to produce ropes or cardboards.
After the raw bark is soaked, cleaned, and treated for uniform color there still remain natural variations. The low-impact, handmade processing means that even after a few days of handling the material can still be grouped by hue and roughness. The most delicate and regular-hued segments are chosen for paper, while rougher and darker segments are destined for rope or thicker boards.
Once the fibres have been separated by thickness and colours, they start the journey to become the final product there are destined to. In the case of the lighter and more delicate fibres as paper.
It is important that same texture and colour fibres get mixed together for the consistency of the end product. The next step is for the fibres to be immersed in cold water and made into a pulp, which is often achieved by using a thresher.
When the fibres have been crushed and separated the colouring take place. This is done with traditional dyes added to the pulp when in cold water making it easier for the true colour to come through in the final product.
Once the pulp is dyed it is collected on light mesh screens immersed in the water and collecting the pulp as it reaches the surface of the water. This process allows for an even layer of paper to be deposited/collected on the screen before it is lifted and place to dry. Before being taken from the water and put to dry, this is also the time where petals and leaves can be added to the pulp to make the final product more interesting.
The pulp put to dry on the screens is essentially cellulose in a mushy state. As the pulp on the screen lies in the sun drying, the water evaporates and the cellulose become the ‘glue’ that holds together the tiny bits of pulp. So when the drying is finished the sheet of paper can be easily lifted from the screen it was drying on.
The screens are made with bamboos tied together in a rectangular shape and with a mesh fixed on across it to provide the resting place for the pulp when lifted. When the pulp is dry the sheets are collected and the screens used again and again. The screens are made in standard sizes easy to handle by one person.
The end product – the sheets of paper – are then used to make cards, as wrapping, or to make boxes.
We have various samples of mulberry paper for sales in our Crafts of the World Online Shop.
Take a look – if nothing else to have an idea of the end product, production of which has been described in this blog.

HANDMADE MULBERRY PAPER

 

On the history of BAG

Where do handbags originate from?

Types of Prehistoric bags

Handbags have been essential to mankind since prehistoric times to carry items and have been recorded in fashion history for a very long time.
The purpose of a bag is to carry precious or useful around even though the items have changed over time. We find mention of such an item first in written literature of the 14th century; however the Egyptian hieroglyphs papyrus show pouches carried around the waist. Bags were attached to "girdles", an item of female underwear, and fastened to the waist. The bags were enriched with Embroidery and jewels and demonstrated the social status of the wearer - the more elaborate the bag, the higher and richer the person that carried it.
In the 16th century, handbags became more practical and were made with the use of everyday materials, i.e. leather and fastener at the top with a drawstring. At the same time, travellers’ bags, made with cloth and larger than normal bags were made and were carried diagonally across the body. In the 17th century bags and small purses became more fashionable both for women and men. Embroidery was becoming fashionable among young girls and this saw the rise in beautiful stitched artwork used on handbags.
In the 18th century, women started to wear less underclothing. Wearing a purse could ruin the look of the clothes and ladies started carrying their handbags. These were called reticules.

Type of Reticule

Women had a different bag for every occasion and fashion magazine argued on the proper way to carry them. Reticules were used to carry rouge (lipstick), face powder, a fan, a small bottle of scent or perfume, visiting cards, smelling salts, dance/appointment card.
The term "handbag" was first used in the early 1900 and generally referred to a hand-held luggage bag usually carried by men. This inspired for new bags that became popular with women.
In the 1920's a fashion revolution saw shortening hemlines and lighter item of clothing. Bags no longer needed to match the outfit worn and it became fashionable for rich women to carry a doll dressed exactly like themselves, complete with matching bag.
With the 1940's clothing and handbags suffered the all around effect of the war. Metal frames, zips, leather, mirrors were all in short supply and manufacturers used plastic and wood instead. In the 1950's designer houses like Chanel and Louis Vuitton started to see a rise in importance and with the 1960's the hippy and youth culture overtook the old classical styles.

60's/70s bag

 

Is there future in the handbag?
Of course! Fashion fads, new textures, materials and perhaps shapes will come and go. Some of the ‘classics’ will stay, like the Chanels and the Louis Vuittons, however in my opinion the bag or handbag is here to stay whatever we will come to call it.

Leather or Saddle Bag