Fes Day 4 - Buttons in Sefrou

Today was a fascinating day learning how a small cooperative of women in the city of Sefrou, about 30 minutes from Fes, are finding new ways to use the traditional handmade buttons that run down the front of djellabas, the robes worn by both men and women, and also reviving the craft of using natural dyes for handspan wool, then making them into rugs and other objects.

Most of our morning was spent with four women from the coop teaching the eight women in the group how to make one of the most common button styles. It's a bit like making a miniature sailors Turks head knot, but around a tiny center. Getting it started proved to be the most difficult part. I managed to finish one, but only after Amina, my teacher and the woman who runs the coop, got it started, and corrected me several times.

Here's a picture of the tiny center we start with (with my fingers in the shot to show you the size), several of us working on making the button, and of Fatima, another of our teachers (and a good weaver) wearing a robe that has dozens if the small buttons down the front. The final shot is of a basket full of clusters of 20 buttons of a slightly different style, a bit out of focus, but you can get the idea of the buttons. One of the new applications they have found is making jewelry out of the buttons. Later I will try to include a picture of a necklace I bought with buttons on it.