For an instant escape from sterile modernity, head to a Moroccan souk to admire the inspired craftsmanship of local maalems. Most of the wonders of Moroccan design are created without computer models or even electrical outlets, using only imagination, the eye, colors and shapes, and, of course, a skilled hand.
All of this requires experience. In Fez, the minimum training for a ceramic maalem is 10 years, and it takes a zellige (geometric tile) mosaicist three to four months to master a single shape—and with 360 shapes to learn, mastery is a lifelong commitment. When you watch a maalem at work, it's the confidence in the hand movements, not the speed, that indicates a masterpiece is in the making. Techniques and tools are passed down from generation to generation, and friendly competition among neighbors fosters innovation.
Instead of sprawling factory showrooms, maalems work wonders in small premises that line the souks, each specializing in a traditional craft. Rural artisans are not on the fringes: many Moroccan villages are known for a distinctive embroidery style or carpet design. Most of the artisans you'll see in the souks are men, but you're likely to spot female maalems working behind the scenes, knotting rugs in villages across the Anti-Atlas and Middle Atlas, weaving textiles along the southern coast, and painting ceramics in Fez, Salé, and Safi.
Carpet
If you manage to return from Morocco without a rug, you can congratulate yourself on being one of the few travelers to have outwitted the world's most cunning salespeople.
Moroccan rugs captivate travelers almost every time, because there's a rug to suit everyone—and if that sounds like what your mother once told you about soulmates, it's not entirely a coincidence. Traditionally, women in rural Morocco produced rugs as part of their dowry, expressing their own personalities in exuberant colors and patterns, and weaving them into symbols of their hopes for health and married life.
Today, rugs are mostly made to supplement household income, but in the hands of a true maalem, a handwoven rug brings so much personality and baraka (blessings) underfoot that it can never be mistaken for a simple doormat.
The rugs you see in the souks may have already been bought and sold three or four times, with the final price representing a significant markup over what the weaver received for their work. Instead, consider buying directly from a village association: the producer is more likely to receive their fair share of the proceeds, you'll get a better deal without having to negotiate extensively, and you might even meet the artisan who created your new rug. This is what Artisanat Shop offers in its store; there are no middlemen or traders between the producers and the store, ensuring a rug at a fair and very reasonable price.
How to choose your Moroccan rug?
- Know your limits, including empty wall and floor space, your airline's baggage weight limit, shipping and customs fees, and the purchase price.
- Be careful with antique rugs. There are very few authentic antique rugs left in Morocco. New rugs are aged from being taken outside and walked on, bleached by the sun, or otherwise treated.
- Inspect the knots. You'll be asked to pay more for rugs with a higher number of knots per square centimeter, which you can discern by examining the back of the rugs for spaces between the knots. Some rugs are washed in hot water to bind the wool more tightly, but you can often spot these shrunken rugs by their warped, uneven edges.
- Prices are often higher for rugs whose wool is colored using vegetable dyes (which tend to fade more quickly) rather than synthetic ones; you can usually recognize these by their muted tones, and the rug seller may be able to tell you which plant was used to make the dye.
- There's no fixed price, so enjoy the experience. Joke before you haggle, keep your sense of humor, come back tomorrow and drink mint tea so sweet you'll want to brush your teeth twice. Besides the great memories, you'll end up with a rug that suits you.
Carpet Categories
- Rabati rugs: As the name suggests, these come from Rabat, the capital of Morocco. Its plush pile rugs in deep jewel tones typically feature an ornate central motif balanced by fine detailing along the borders. Many designs may remind you of a formal garden, but you may also see newer animal motifs and vibrant modern abstract designs. Rabati rugs are highly sought after, and the most expensive can cost you 2,000 Dh per square meter;
- Simple and striking Saharan rug made in southern Morocco, with zigzags, asterisks and enigmatic symbols on a variegated red or purple background (approximately Dh700 to Dh1000 per square meter).
- Hanbels or Kilims These flat-woven, pileless rugs make up for their lack of softness with character. Some hanbels feature Berber letters and auspicious symbols such as the evil eye, the Southern Cross, and the Berber fibula (brooch) in their weave. Ask the seller to explain them to you—whether it's folklore or fiber, the rug seller's interpretation adds to the experience (from 400 to 900 Dh per square meter).
- Zanafi or glaoua kilims and shag rugs, finally united. Opposites attract in these rugs, where sections of downy pile alternate with flat-woven stripes or borders. They generally cost between 1,000 and 1,800 Dh per square meter.
- Shedwi Flat-woven rugs with bold black wool patterns on off-white, so natural you can still feel the lanolin between your fingers when you rub them. Starting at 400 Dh for a small rug, these make impressive yet inexpensive gifts.
Textile Crafts
Anything in Morocco that isn't nailed down is likely to be woven, sewn, or embroidered—and even then, it may be upholstered. Moroccan women are the unsung masters of Moroccan textiles, and the tradition they established has recently helped attract emerging fashion companies and global brands to Morocco. A third of Moroccan women are employed in the Moroccan clothing industry, but for meticulous handwork with a personal touch, discover traditional textile crafts.
Embroidery
What's this gentleman doing with a hairdryer and silk thread in a medina alleyway? He's a passementerie mâalem (decorative embroidery trim) who uses a salvaged hairdryer to spin thread from a nail stuck in the wall until it's the perfect width and length for knotted buttons, silk tassels, and djellaba and gandoura trim. In mini Moroccan passementerie shops the size of wardrobes, you'll find enough gold braid to decorate an army of generals and more tassels than a burlesque troupe could spin in a lifetime—but you'll also find a jackpot of goodies. Moroccan maalems have made their craft a full-fledged art of cutting and wrapping iron wire and washers with silk thread to create modular necklaces, towel holders, knotted key rings and curtain pulls.
Moroccan embroidery ranges from simple Berber motifs to intricately detailed terz Fezzi, the elaborate nature-inspired designs stitched in blue onto white linen that the women of Fez traditionally spend years mastering for their dowries. Rabati embroidery is a veritable explosion of color, with bold, graphic flowers crafted using one or two-color silk thread, almost completely obscuring the plain cotton backing. But the ladies of Salé also deserve their due for their striking embroidery in one or two bold colors along the edges of crisp white linen.
Weaving
Beyond the multitude of vibrant synthetic sarouals and djellabas found in Moroccan souks , hand-woven Moroccan fabrics of exceptional shine and texture may catch your eye: soft organic cotton from the Rif, lustrous "vegetable silk" woven with cotton and rayon from the south, elegant table linens from Marrakech, and the softest wool blankets from the High Atlas. Some lesser-quality knockoffs are industrially produced, but connoisseurs seek the softer side, tighter weave, and elegant drape of hand-woven Moroccan fabrics.
In the souks or village cooperatives throughout the region, you might spot two to four women weaving, working on a single piece. Men work on assembly looms for djellaba fabric, pushing the sewing machines with their arms while pressing pedals with their feet—producing a meter of fabric this way is a workout equivalent to running several kilometers while dribbling a basketball. You can buy ready-made linens and clothing or obtain hand-woven fabric by the roll or meter, and have Moroccan home decor and couture items custom-made. You'll find tailors in all major towns, but be sure to allow enough time for the initial consultation and two fittings for garments.
Leatherwork
Now that camel saddles are no longer in high demand, Moroccan leather artisans are busy fashioning embossed leather book covers and must-have handbags with what look like medieval dentistry tools. In the derbs (alleyways) of the medinas, you'll discover freshly tanned and dyed leather carved into fashionable square poufs (ottomans), yellow tassels carefully sewn onto elegant fuchsia kidskin gloves, or shocking silver leather stretched and sewn into frilly slippers.
Along these leather souks, you might spot artisans stamping henna onto stretched goatskin to create candlesticks, lampshades, or standalone works of tattooed leather art. If you're in town for a few days, you can even have an artisan make you a custom bag or lambskin jacket.
If you're looking for authenticity, men will prefer traditional yellow babouches (slippers) or "Berber Adidas," slippers with soles made from recycled rubber tires. Women's babouches come in a wider range of colors and patterns, and you might see vats of vibrant dye used to make them in the tanneries of Fez. But as colorful as they may appear from a distance,
Ceramic
Moroccan ceramics are a real treat and offer excellent value for money. A decorative tagine can cost you anywhere from 150 to 400 Dh, depending on the size and decoration. Each region has its own color palette: Meknes ceramics tend to be green and black, Fassi pottery is blue, Safi offers black and white Berber designs, and Tamegroute makes a distinctive green glaze from oxidized copper. Salé is distinguished by yellow and turquoise, geometric patterns, and intricate dot-patterned tableware. Marrakech specializes in monochrome ceramics of red, graphite, or orange, without elaborate decoration. Many rural areas specialize in earthenware tableware, with simple, striking shapes and henna-painted Berber lucky symbols.
Zellige
To make a Moroccan fountain, grab your hammer and chisel and carefully carve a glazed tile into the correct geometric shape. Good work—you've only got 6,000 pieces left to complete your water feature. Or, leave it to Moroccan mosaic masters to beautify your entryway with coffee tables, mirrors, and fountains of all sizes made from zellige (colorful geometric mosaic tiles). Fez has a reputation for producing the most intricate and brilliant zelliges, and the city's historic fountains dating back to the Middle Ages are convincing advertisements for Fassi's masterpieces.
Brass, copper and silver crafts
In Morocco, tea is a performance art, requiring the right props. As if tea being poured over your head wasn't spectacular enough, Moroccan brass teapots and copper tea trays are hand-hammered to catch the light and engraved with calligraphy to impart baraka to all who partake. Pierced brass lamps and recycled tin lanterns add instant ambiance. And if you fail to impress your guests, serve them a slice of cake with an inlaid knife from Kalaat M'Gouna, the dagger capital of Morocco.
Most Moroccan "silver" tea accessories are actually made of nickel silver (an alloy of copper, zinc, and nickel), and should cost accordingly - around Dh100 to Dh450 for the teapot, and usually more for the tray (depending on the size and design).
Berber jewelry
In Morocco, all that glitters is not gold, as many Berbers traditionally believe that gold brings misfortune. You may see jewelers with magnifying glasses working on delicate gold filigree, but most of the gold you'll see in the souks is imported from India and Bali. Sterling silver is marked 925 and is often sold by weight rather than pattern. Moroccan mining operations are more interested in phosphates and fossils than gemstones, but you'll see dowry jewelry and folk headdresses with semiprecious stones, including coral, agate, carnelian, and amber.
But Moroccan men don't need precious materials to create an object of beauty. Ancient ammonite and trilobite fossils from Rissani make fascinating prehistoric amulets, and stunning Berber silver fibulae (brooches) are a specialty of Tiznit. Layers of wood, nickel silver, and brightly colored enamel make Berber rings, bracelets , or Tuareg desert talismans made of leather and silver suitable gifts for a man of the world.
Woodworking
The most pleasantly fragrant part of the souk is the carpenters' area, whose scent comes from the curls of wood lining the floors of the master carvers' workshops. These are the malems responsible for the ancient carved cedar doors, edged with brass, and those carved cedar domes in the shape of muqarnas (honeycombs) that are the wonder of Moroccan palaces. Tetouan, Meknes, and Fez have the best reputations for ornate carved wood, but you'll see impressive woodwork in most Moroccan medinas.
For the gourmets on your gift list, hand-carved orangewood harira (lentil soup) spoons are small ladles with long handles that make ideal tasting spoons. Cedar is used for ornate jewelry boxes, and heavy, chip-carved chests are sure to keep moths at bay.
The most prized wood is thuja wood, a knotty burl derived from the roots of trees native to the Essaouira region. Buy from artisan associations that practice responsible tree management and harvesting.