Marrakesh Express
Women Weavers OnLine
Ben Smim
The next several items are for sale by members of the project assistant Habiba's family.
Piece 3.12906 belongs to Fatima Zahra Oushqir, the wife of Habiba's brother. He is in his 20s and has a young wife and new baby son. The wife is from a nearby village, and never went to school - she didn't like it. She is the oldest of five children and helped her mother care for them. She got this woman's cape from her mother at her marriage and made and the bedspread set below, but did not want her picture taken. The cape is worn by women when they marry and at special events afterward. In this area they are in this style, in a plain or striped wool or wool and cotton weave with fine design bands, and the back has long threads in lines behind the design with lots of sequins. You can see the full front of the cape by clicking here, and the full back here, plus a close-up. This piece appears to be mostly cotton. While you might not wear this, it would make a very pretty throw on a couch or bed, and is warm to wrap up in while watching TV. The size is about 6' x 9'6" and it costs $265.
Piece 3.12910 is another item associated with marriage, a bed cover in bright gold yellow (less orange than it looks on my screen) decorated with sequins and design bands in red and white with a little gold and kelly green. You can see the design bands, and also the squares in flatweave and with tufts, in the close-up. The fabric is probably acrylic yarn; I didn't check to see if it was mixed with wool. This measures 6'5" x 9'2" and the price is $265.
Pieces 3.12913 are two pillows to match the bed cover above. They have the same colors, except there is also a little turquoise and bright pink, which you can see in this detail. The backs are the same color in plain weave, and the faces have squares outlined in tufts rather than filled with tufts of yarn. Each pillow is 19" square and you can buy both or one separately. The price of each is $70.
This is Fatima Lrhachi, with her sister the project assistant Habiba on the right. Fatima's husband sells vegetables at the outdoor market, and she has several children. The eldest is a girl of 19 who is in her first year at the university. She has another child in boarding school in a nearby town, and uses her earnings to buy the children school supplies and to pay for their transportation to visit her at home on the weekends. She is standing in front of a piece she has sold. I asked her what she did with the money, and she said she had hoped to buy a calf to raise, but her children "ate" the money, that is used it up for things like school expenses. She made several of the pieces below.
Piece 3.13037 is similar to the piece shown above, a flatweave in natural off-white wool with white stripes in nubbly cotton and white acrylic tufts and sequins. Fatima would use it as a bedspread, and also to decorate the wall during a wedding ceremony. In this area, the bride and groom are seated in front of such pieces to receive guests and to take their wedding photos. You can see the whole piece here. (Don't worry about the spot on the left; it's a shadow.) And if you click here, you can see the very fine fringe at the ends of this piece. Fatima was a bit sad as she pointed it out, saying the woman who had finished the fringe for her had died recently. This piece is about 6' 10' and costs $490.
