Day-1 Arrival in a lush garden
Welcome to Souhad organic farm. The beauty of the landscapes makes this family cottage a unique place. The farm's cuisine mixes regional specialties with those from the city of Fez, famed for its excellent ancestral cuisine. All the ingredients are grown on the farm or are sourced locally; all organic. The farm practices polyculture and mixed livestock and the bread is baked daily in the traditional oven.
The family has two main objectives. Maintaining good agricultural practices without using chemicals, and developing solidarity tourism in the region whilst still respecting local customs and traditions.
Day-2 Hand building
First, we will prepare clay, aduka.
The preparation of clay is a necessary step. Clay made by our own hands becomes precious. It is a question of crushing, sifting and preparing the earth by mixing it with water and grog (clay which has been fired then ground up) until a certain plasticity threshold is reached.
Seated on the ground, we will begin to build our pieces: using both hands and a selection of tools: flat discs, chekaf, and spatulas, mechta, all made of wood. You will mainly use three techniques: coiling, modelling and the "plates" technique.
Day-3 Hand building & clay harvesting
We will continue to model, again and again, to learn these subtle gestures. The pieces are then placed in the sun to dry to prepare them for the next step: polishing.
In the afternoon we go for a walk and harvest clay and mineral pigments in the surroundings with the potter.
Day-4 Polishing
We will polish our pieces using a pebble, adelak, or any other hard and smooth object. Indeed, the pieces are then polished by the potter before cooking because the clay is very porous
The pieces are ready for the slip (a liquid mixture or slurry of clay and/or other materials suspended in water). You will cover them using a cloth, tolok, and a slip of red clay, the iron oxide rich jammar, or white clay, known as biyada.
Day-5 Decorating
Using a brush, arakam, we will decorate our pieces with colors made of mineral pigments. These must be ground in a pestle and mortar before they are ready to use. The black color, mogra, comes from manganese oxide diluted in water.
Day-6 Ancient pit firing
We will prepare the fire with small pieces of wood, twigs and pine needles.
This is a unique and fascinating stage for the potter; where the magic of the four elements combine. You will be amazed as from air, water, earth, and fire, the pieces are born. It is a real contemplation of the beauty and magic of nature and thus we will give birth to our pieces. We will start an open fire, muakra, covered with dried disc, luguide, made from a mixture of straw and manure. The potter must remain diligent throughout the combustion, paying close attention to the air currents which influence the fire’s blaze. The best results are achieved when the temperature will not exceed 1000 degrees celsius.
Day-7 Discovery of treasures
We will remove our pieces from the fire after a dozen hours of cooking at low temperature and go to visit the souk before coming back to Fès city center.
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