Morocco Pottery Trip
Back in May, my mother and I travelled to Morocco to make pottery in the Rif mountains. We started the trip with a couple of nights in Fez. We had visited once before, some years ago after visiting friends in Tangier, and always wanted to return. The narrow winding alleys in the medina are like a maze, full of bustling market stalls, donkeys, chickens and carpet shops (hard to resist!). Small staircases lead up to terraced roof tops, from which you can see the leather tanneries, and rooms full of the clatter of weaving looms.
A couple of days later we travelled for around 2 hours from Fez into the foothills of the Rif mountains to a tiny village where we would spend the week living with Mama Aicha and her family. It was such a privilege to learn from Mama Aicha, a master potter. Mama Aicha has been making pots for most of her life, in the traditional pre-riff style and technique, but with her own unique handwriting.
The potters of northern Morocco first appeared around 6,000 BC and the techniques and patterns used today remain the same and are solely made by women. The decorative marks are unique to each potter and traditionally would have distinguished which Berber tribe they came from.
Clay and grog is collected from the local mountains and carried home on donkeys. The pots are hand built by coiling and blending the clay, using round bisque fired discs to turn the pot as you work. Once dry, the surface is burnished by rubbing it smooth with rounded stones from the river bed. The pots are then decorated using mineral pigments made from ground coloured rocks mixed with water, and painted on with brushes made of knotted donkey hair.
Mama Aicha showed us her firing technique. Starting with a layer of kindling and straw, the pots are stacked and then covered in straw and earth. Finally a domed roof is created with pats of donkey manure mixed with straw. The kiln smouldered for most of the day, with a slow combustion below 1000 degrees Celsius and the next morning it was cool enough for the pots to be unpacked.
It was an incredibly special experience, living with Mama Aichas family, enjoying the delicious home cooked meals made by her daughter in law Samira, going food shopping in the market in Ourtzagh, bustling and full of colour, and watching the sun set each night over the lake. We also visited Samira’s parents, her father is a weaver of beautiful baskets, and on the walk home on the mountain paths we met a shepherdess who let me cuddle her lambs (I tried to explain that my family also rear sheep!). It was very sad to say goodbye, and I hope to return to this wonderful place one day.