Fes Trades

    This is Magnolia, today we went to one restaurant and three different workshops, a tannery, a ceramic shop, and a fabric shop. We started our day with breakfast in our hotel and a game of Yahtzee. We then took a tour bus with our city guide and saw a palace belonging to the king and a Jewish cemetery. 

    The ceramic shop was our next stop, the first thing we saw in this workshop was a man making clay pots on a wheel which he spun using his feet. We saw where these ceramic pieces were dried, painted, glazed by hand, and then fired. The paintings on the clay were all original and mostly unique and I liked hearing about and witnessing the creative freedom that the painters had. We also saw the process by which they make mosaics. We saw them make the shapes out of tiles and set them in patterns to be sealed in by concrete and resin. My favorite part of the ceramics shop was watching all of the artists demonstrate their skills and seeing how the projects are completed in steps by several people with different jobs. 

    The tannery was next which was where the dying of animal skins takes place. We saw from above the huge tubs of dye that the workers stand in while working the mixtures into the skins and then we saw the finished products made from the dyed leather of cows, camels, goats, and sheep. The dyes are all made from natural materials like henna and saffron and the leather coats and bags were all very intensely colored. My favorite part of the tannery was that they gave us mint leaves at the door to distract from the smell, I thought that was clever. 

    Our lunch was very similar to the Moroccan food we've been eating all week, but our restaurant did a very good job and we had a very delicious lunch. I really liked the chicken skewers I ordered. 

    The fabric store was the last place we went today on our tour and we saw some of their blankets and scarfs paired with a description of how they were made. We also saw the loom that the fabrics are made on as well as a demonstration of how it is used. I liked watching the loom operate and I thought it was impressive how easily the worker used such a big peice of equipment. 

    Before we went back to the hotel for the night we stopped at a grocery store and picked up our dinner, I opted for a pre-prepared pasta but we also ended up with a baguette and a jar of nutella. We also ordered pastries for our desert from a big display and then headed back to our van. 

            -Magnolia