-
Working studios
In the artisan's own space, with the kilns lit. Not a showroom.
-
Groups of two to six
Small enough that the artisan works with each of you.
-
You keep what you make
Take it home the same day, or we fire it and ship it at cost.
-
Nothing to pay now
Send a request, we confirm, and you pay in cash on the day.
Marhba! Make something with your hands in Fes
Half-day workshops with working artisans
Not a guide who learned the craft to teach it to visitors. The potter teaching you at the wheel sells what comes off it; the zellige cutter works on restoration jobs in the medina the rest of the week. That is the whole difference, and it is why a session sometimes runs long.
Workshops
0 workshops
Each one runs in a working artisan's own space, not a demonstration room. Small groups. You keep what you make.
Nothing here is a demonstration. The kilns are lit, and the tools are the ones they use every day.
03 — What to expect
What a workshop is like
You arrive, and someone makes you tea while the workshop is set up. There is no introductory talk and no slideshow. Within about ten minutes you have material in your hands and you are getting it wrong, which is the fastest way to start getting it right.
Your teacher is an artisan who does this for a living, not a guide. Most of them speak enough English and French to teach, and where they do not, someone translates. Nobody is watching the clock. If you are close to finishing something, you finish it.
You will make several attempts at whatever you are making, and the first ones will be bad. That is expected and nobody minds. You choose the best one to keep, and where a piece needs firing or drying, we tell you when to collect it or we ship it to you.
Groups are small, usually two to six people. There is no shop at the end and nobody will be asked to buy anything. If you want to buy something afterwards, we will tell you what it should cost first.
Booking
Book with the family, not a middleman
Most visitors find workshops like ours through a booking platform. You can do that. Here is plainly what changes if you write to us instead.
Straight with us
- You message the family who teach the workshop. The person replying is the person you will meet.
- No platform commission, so what you pay goes to the artisan and the materials.
- Change the date or cancel by WhatsApp, free, up to the morning itself.
- We answer in English, French, Darija and Arabic, usually within a few hours.
Through a booking platform
- You message a support desk, often in another country and another time zone.
- Between a fifth and a third of the price stays with the platform.
- Changes and refunds follow the platform's window, not ours.
- The listing is usually resold by an agency that has never been in the workshop.
We are not against the platforms — some of you will find us that way, and that is fine. We would just rather you knew.
Do I need any experience?
No. Every workshop assumes you have never touched the material before. The teaching is hands-on from the first ten minutes rather than a demonstration you watch.
Do I pay online?
No. There is no online payment on this site. You send a request, we confirm the date by WhatsApp or email, and you pay in cash at the workshop on the day.
Can I take what I make home the same day?
For leather, brass, weaving, plaster and zellige, yes. Anything that needs firing — the pottery class and pottery painting — is ready in about four days. Collect it, or we ship it at cost.
05 — Practical
Where we are and how to get here
The workshops are in and around the medina. We send exact directions and a pin when a booking is confirmed, because addresses inside Fes el Bali are close to useless on their own.