Sketches

Thursday 1 September 2016

day 3: Fès leather workshops


I had been looking forward to see this scene, I had seen pictures of it in travel brochures.
But reality was even better than the pictures: the leather workshops of Fès.
These are the open air pots where they drain and treat goat and cattle leather for weeks. Some of them where white of calcium (more to the left), the ones here were filled with dye.

To be honest, the guide told us about the workshop for a quarter of an hour, but I did not catch anything of his story. After we arrived I immediately occupied a side window with full view, drew out my gear and began to draw and paint frantically. I had no idea how much time I had. Eventually, the group had just left the room when I finished, and I had to run after them to catch up.

As it turned out, the area had just been renovated this spring, so it did not smell much. Others have told me they used to get some fresh mint to make the stench bearable.












Reality.

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