Woodwork is a form of artistic expression mostly used in architecture. It is also another form that unveils aspects of the Moroccan and Islamic culture and tradition, and guarantees their continuity and originality.
Woodwork craft is divided into two categories: a traditional and a modern woodwork. The first category, the traditional work of wood is branched in three subcategories: carpentry, woodcarving, and woodpainting.
The first subcategory’s work is achieved through sawing wood and giving it a shape in conformity with the request of customers. The various object of wood a carpenter makes are different shapes of tables, divans, chests, doors, windows, and small cupboards…etc.
The second subcategory cannot be achieved unless the timber goes through the stage of the first one; carpentry. After timber takes a particular form: a table, furniture, seddary or whatsoever article of wood, it is carved at the demand of the customer. The designs made nowadays in the carving of wood in Morocco date back to the Almoravides and the Merinides’s reign. The patterns are in fact borrowed from the Andalousie ornaments.
The object to carve can be either furniture, doors…etc. The beautifully carved ornaments include calligraphy especially koranic verses, and geometrical motifs. The latter can be horizontal, diagonal or vertical lines, cubes, rectangles, triangles, lozenges, arcs, pillars, stars, dots and draughtboards. The patterns may encompass as well floral motifs: leaves of trees or palms, or else a combination of the splinter of pinecone and foliated scroll.
Another form of woodcarving is what is known mousharabiyas. They have geometric surface composed of many openings in the shape of stars and diagons. In doing mousharabiyas, the maallem must include in addition to cedar another type of wood that has a different color from cedar. It can be either acacia, mahogany or red wood, or white wood (ivory). This contrast of colors is meant to make the colors of the different patterns more noticeable. Mousharabiyas are a kind of woodwork that unveils some aspects and characteristics of the tradition of all Muslim society regarding women. Mousharabiyas are almost found in all Muslim houses mainly in their private spaces. They are put in the corridors of private parts of the house in order to give housewives and all the females in the house more freedom of movement, and keep them veiled from the sight of outsiders.
The last and third subcategory, which is the woodpainting, is very popular in Fez. It depends on the work of the second subcategory in that the painting is applied on already carved wood such as furniture. In woodpainting, carpenter/ painter relies on ancient ingredients based on mineral or vegetable elements as well as chemical powders. Those elements are melted with the yolk of an egg or with golden leaves. Besides, they use a variety of colourific powders. It can be blue, red, yellow, black…etc. The maallem mixes one of these colorants either with broken up cattle skin, or with albumen. After the maallem applies this mixture to the sculpted object or furniture, and once it becomes dry, he spreads on it varnish, which a cooked substance made of oil, saffron, grass and ceber. The varnish is used to give the colors a shining and vivid hue, and also to preserve them from the effect of light and humidity.
The second category is the modern woodwork. It is crafted with the burls of the Thuja tree, which is found only in Morocco. The history of this craft dates back to the time of the settlement of the Jewish population in Morocco. The Jews were the first to use the roots of the Thuja tree in making Thuja products. At that time, in 1900, the Jewish craftsmen possessed neither the advanced means nor the technical tools. They were rather working with traditional methods and using traditional elements. They relied mainly on their hands to make the different ornaments and shapes. They used also to mark their products with the sign of the Jewish flag as a means of identification. Nowadays, this craft developed and spread in Morocco, especially in Essaouira and Agadir. They are very famous for the production of very fine marketry work as animals, utensils, chest, trays, furniture, objects of decoration, masks…etc. Those pieces are decorated with citron wood, walnut, ebony, and mother-of-pearl, copper and silver wire.
