This place is somehow similar to the tanneries. Pottery making was long time
ago banished from the Medina, and put outside city walls, because of
the thick heavy-smelling fumes produced by clay baking ovens. The oven
fuel is made of olive-oil industry wastes (dried olive seeds and
residues), which have a good heating power but give a very thick, oily
and smelly smoke. The plant, together with normal pottery like vases,
dishes, pots, trays produces also the tesseras used in the gorgeous
mosaics which embellish every moroccan wall, fountain, stone table. The
way they build the tesseras is peculiar: they cook square (about 7
inches) tiles which are brightly colored on one side. The tiles are
then cut down to the little pieces which are needed for the mosaics.
Cutting of the tiles is done by hand, with special hammers, by
specialised workers who have an incredible ability. They can carve out
of a square tile many different pieces, with different shapes,
including five, six and even eight pointed stars, like the one you can
see in the last photo in this page if you get it at full resolution
(it's over the banknote on the white stone). The tiny shapes come
almost magically from under the hammers, and are then assembled by
special craftsmen who build the mosaics. Even in this case, photos are
a means to remember, not to replace, the real thing.
 Olive residues are taken from the huge heaps to the barrow, to be fed into the oven fire |
 The kiln: The white part is the fuel feeding hole. The oven where clay is baking is closed by a metal door |
 Each time a shovelful is fed into the fire, a thick black smoke cloud comes out of the kiln. Windy days are terrible... |
 The potter at work, preparing a simple tajine |
 ... et voila' |
 Painting is often a women job |
 A young painter at work. After the second baking the colors will appear very different from this |
 Stone cutters carving mosaic tesseras from the square tiles. |
 Stone cutter at work. The position is typical. Notice the cut tile over the white stone (full resolution required) |
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