Women Weavers OnLine
N'kob
This is Aicha Seqqat, one of N'kob's two femmes leaders or women leaders; you have seen her before. When the village development association wants to inform women about anything (including health - or - coming to have their rugs photographed for the Internet), they have Aicha and her colleague Fadma contact the rest of the women. Most of her children are older, but one daughter weaves with her, and made the woman's cloak that she is holding - you can read about ordering it earlier in these pages. Aicha's husband washes rugs to prepare them for sale, and Aicha made the two rugs below.
Piece 3.13661 is a small pile Tazenakht rug, yet it has all the elements: five central panels, and three wide and two thin borders. It balances several colors: gray, dark red, black, denim blue, white and a bit of orange and dark green. You can see them, and the finely-drawn detail, better in this close-up. This piece measures 2'8" x 5'5" (81 x 165 cm) and costs $260.
Piece 3.13625 is a medium rug in a combination of flatweave and pile. One of the women said this style is called teelwa in Berber, which is the name for the luha or wood tablet that children learn to write on at traditional schools associated with the mosque. Luha is also used for a painting in Arabic, and I think the name is more related to that use, since the rug contains many small "pictures" or "paintings." (However, I heard that a nearby village calls these "shop rugs", since the compartments are like all the products lined up in a shop.) Notice how the "paintings" are arranged symmetrically - it's one of those rugs you can look at for a long time. In this close-up you can see how the pile and flatweave sections arranged diagonally to each other, each with a different design. The lower right pile design in red and gold reminds one of some of the older rugs above, and is like a "mini-rug." This piece measures about 3'8" x 6'8" (112 x 228 cm) and costs $340.
This is Fadma Bourais and she made the rug below. She has three children, two married daughters and a son who is in junior high school in the town of Ouarzazate about 2 hours away. The village only has a primary school, so further education means boarding in town, and this often stops girls from continuing. Her husband sells vegetables in the same town and comes home on weekends; he and the son probably share housekeeping in town. Fadma made the rug by herself in seven months. When we asked what she would do with the money, she first said "buy tea," meaning household expenses, just for one month. When we said we thought it should cover more than that, she said "not even that." Another thing she needs to buy are school books and supplies for her son.
Piece 3.13627 is a large knotted Tazenakht rug with a clear design on a maroon and true blue ground, accented in white, not-too-bright orange, and a bit of olive green. You can see the well-drawn designs and the several borders more clearly on this close-up. While it does not quite lie flat, a rug pad should make it do so. The size is about 5' x 9'1" (152 x 277 cm) and the price is $745. SOLD
The next two pieces were made by Jamila Sama. She did not want to be photographed this time, but you have seen her before in these pages, standing in her pale green jellaba or long robe. She is an excellent weaver, and the sister of Brahim, my assistant in N'kob. I was able to spend more time with her this trip, and she told me how last year she had worked with her sister in the Marrakesh area, teaching young women weaving in her sister's workshop. Right now most of her earnings from weaving go to support her family, including her parents and Brahim and his family, all of whom live in one household. But she would like to save some money and have her own rug project, perhaps training young women like her sister does. She said that she bought all the materials for at least one of the rugs below, so that she would get all the money for herself if it sold.
Piece 3.13630 is really unique: it is a map of Morocco, and I've never seen another like it. Jamila said she designed it herself. It is a medium sized flatweave or akhnif, but I wondered if Moroccans or Moroccophiles living outside Morocco might want to put it on a wall as a decoration and/or conversation piece. On the close-up you can see the city names and palm trees more clearly. The colors are a bright red, gold-orange, denim blue and natural brown for the sand of the Sahara at the lower right. It looks a bit lumpy here, but should lie flat with a rug pad. It measures 3'6" x 7' (107 x 213 cm) and costs $245.
Piece 3.13632 is a small piece with both flatweave and pile, the kind called a teelwa or picture rug above, although here the "pictures" are less varied. Inside the frames made in pile is embroidery on flatweave, although the embroidery is done as part of the weaving, not later with a needle. You can see this best in a detail. The colors are a blue-red and navy blue, with accents in white and orange. The size is 3'8" x 5'4" (81 x 162 cm) and the price is $170.
The piece below was made by Jamila's sister Sofia Sama who is married and lives about an hour away in the market town of Tazenakht. She has three sons and two daughters who are all in school. Her husband is a day laborer, finding whatever job he can in areas like construction, so her weaving really helps with family finances. You can see from the unique design below that weaving creativity seems to run in the family.
Piece 3.13634 is in a style I have never seen in Morocco, both in terms of the free-form overall design and in the use of curved instead of geometric lines. In addition, this rug depicts things from nature, while usually rugs are just geometric designs. The red and yellow line indicates the top and is surrounded by sky, and what is underneath is what you would see from one of the nearby mountaintops: hills, mountains, a river....The colors also reflect nature in their softness, and some of them are the natural wool color, while the tan is dyed with tea. In this detail you see a gracefully curved abstract leaf in the tan area above the hand. While the overview makes it look like this flatweave rug may not lie flat, it should with a rug pad; the bright sun accentuates the shadows. This piece measures about 3'9" x 5'2" (114 x 157 cm) and the price is $330. SOLD but could probably be redone.
