January 16, 2004



Fez

This morning, a handful of us left early to go with the guide into the medina to find a music store. It was filled with drums from wall to wall, and several twelve-string medieval style guitars hung from the ceiling. The drums were a ceramic base covered with either camel or fish skin. The camel skin was often dyed in a variety of colors in an almost tie-dyed pattern.

We played around for a while with the instruments, while most of the workers played cards at a table nearby. We stopped at several shops on our way out of the medina. A couple of people bought hand-made pillows. David and I stopped in a jewelry store and haggled rather successfully over two pieces of coral jewelry. The necklace I ended up buying was an assemblage necklace, and, though men would have made the three large silver beads, the piece itself would have been strung entirely by Berber women. The coral, aside from its beauty, to me represents something very unique to this region rather than simply a product of the Islamic world, as has some of the patterning found in other mediums. I was able to find the flaw in the necklace – one tiny black bead – put in because only God is perfect.

We went to the ceramic factory this afternoon and watched the various techniques used to make pottery. Certainly the methods have remained very much the same since the introduction of the potter’s wheel. The kiln was very much