Artisan Organization: Le Souk Ceramique

Country: Tunisia

 

This ceramic piece comes from Nabeul, the center of Tunisian pottery, located on the Mediterranean coast of northeastern Tunisia. Many of the artisans who hand-paint these mugs have been working for Le Souk for years and their collaborative process has become a familiar dance. It goes something like this: Mokhtar mans the potter’s wheel. Hichem paints the top and bottom lines of the mugs and sets the outlines. Riadh paints the honeycomb and seashell designs, and Zouhaira and her teammates, Olfa and Faten, take turns adding dots of color. Finally, Ahmed paints the black borders, and Noureddine dunks the mugs into a glaze to finish them.