If you're an artisan in Morocco and work with a brush, it's more than likely that you made it yourself. I've been making some very make-shift ones lately and so have my workshop participants - mainly for mark-making and interesting effects. But if you want brushes for the more precise work that I've witnessed in the studios here, then you need to have learnt special skills and practised to achieve the perfect tool for your job.
My first encounter with the handmade brushes of Morocco was in 2014, when my students and I participated in a Zouaq Workshop - decorative painting on wood.
Our teacher, Mohamed Ben Abdelwahid, is also a "dab hand" at making brushes.
I had the pleasure of watching him quietly work with the simplest of tools and materials: donkey hair, thread, sticks and a knife. He presented all twelve of us with one of these perfect tools, to paint the beautiful designs he'd prepared for us.....
My first encounter with the handmade brushes of Morocco was in 2014, when my students and I participated in a Zouaq Workshop - decorative painting on wood.
Our teacher, Mohamed Ben Abdelwahid, is also a "dab hand" at making brushes.
I had the pleasure of watching him quietly work with the simplest of tools and materials: donkey hair, thread, sticks and a knife. He presented all twelve of us with one of these perfect tools, to paint the beautiful designs he'd prepared for us.....
When the exquisitely restored Secret Garden opened in Marrakech in 2016, they employed the Zouaq Maalem (master decorator), Hicham Bahia, to embellish the timber surfaces with floral designs. I witnessed him in action, up on the scaffolding, with his handmade brush and pots of colour, diligently working away. He was single-handedly adorning the entire inside surface of the garden's pagoda centrepiece! Today, you can sometimes watch him working on a smaller scale; creating unique, single panels for sale in their boutique. One of his trusty handmade brushes is pictured below...
In Fes, when you take the time to explore their ceramic workshops, you'll find the artisans make a very particular donkey hair brush; a large head of donkey hair, designed to hold the maximum amount of glaze. In the centre of this mass are a few longer hairs that make the strokes, designed to feed the glaze smoothly and consistently through many strokes before the brush needs replenishing.
The brush in action below; the artisan creates the black outlines of the design...
The brush in action below; the artisan creates the black outlines of the design...
The same brushes (a brush for each colour) used here to fill in the shapes
with different coloured glazes...
with different coloured glazes...
Beautiful work ready for final firing. These high quality pieces are from the northern city of Fes.
These tools below, are not meant to be anywhere near the quality of the donkey hair brushes above. For our purposes, we are not wanting control over a line or a design.
Instead, these make-shift brushes that we create in my workshops, are about the
pleasure of working with our hands and manipulating locally sourced natural fibres.
Here in Morocco, specially in the south, the date palms are a fabulous source of raw materials.
In Essaouira, we add the plentiful Madagascan raffia.
Dipped into black ink, or Aswik (walnut) ink, they create unique marks.
Allowing our brushes to write, dance and create their own language on the paper is the aim.
Instead, these make-shift brushes that we create in my workshops, are about the
pleasure of working with our hands and manipulating locally sourced natural fibres.
Here in Morocco, specially in the south, the date palms are a fabulous source of raw materials.
In Essaouira, we add the plentiful Madagascan raffia.
Dipped into black ink, or Aswik (walnut) ink, they create unique marks.
Allowing our brushes to write, dance and create their own language on the paper is the aim.
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