6 artisans. 8 collaboration slots open right now.

I have been weaving since I was twelve. My grandmother taught me, then her sister taught me the patterns my grandmother did not know. I work on a vertical loom in the room behind my house. Most rugs take me between six and ten weeks depending on the size and the knot density. I work in undyed wool from the village and dye the colour myself with madder, indigo, and walnut. I do not weave the same rug twice. If you collaborate with me, you will tell me what room it is for and I will weave you something only you have.

My workshop is on the second floor of a building near Bab Boujloud. I cut and stitch goat leather by hand. I do not use a sewing machine. Most pieces I make are bags, satchels, and belts. I learned from my uncle, who learned from his father. I do not take more than four collaborations at a time because saddle stitching is slow and I am not willing to rush it. Tell me the size, what you carry, and how you want it to age, and I will tell you whether I am the right person for it.

I am a maâlem of zellige. The tiles I make are cut from a fired clay tablet, by hand, with a hammer. The geometry comes before the colour. I am not the right person to collaborate with if you want something quickly — even a small panel takes weeks because every piece is shaped one at a time. I am the right person if you want a panel that nobody else in the world has.

I do tatreez — Palestinian cross-stitch. My mother taught me using thread and linen she kept from before I was born. Every village has its own patterns. Mine are from Beit Nuba, the village my grandmother left in 1948. The patterns are how we remember a place we cannot visit. I work on commission pieces and I work on thobs — the traditional dress. I will not make tatreez that is not rooted in a real pattern from a real place. If you want something decorative but invented, I am not the right person. If you want something that means something, send me a message.

I weave Kuba cloth — the raffia cut-pile fabric from the Kasai region. The patterns are geometric and precise. Each one has a name and a history. My grandmother taught me twelve patterns. I can now teach twenty-seven. The cloth takes a long time. A piece the size of a place mat can take two weeks. A full hanging takes three months. I joined Amussu because someone in Kinshasa told me people in Europe paid forty euros for machine-made fabric that looked like mine. I want to be paid for mine directly.

I weave on a floor loom that my father brought from the village we lived in before the dam. The High Dam displaced our village in 1964. Most of what we had went underwater. The loom came with us. I weave the geometric patterns that are specific to our part of Nubia — bold colours, strong lines, cotton warp. A throw takes me three weeks. I do not make anything quickly. I have been weaving for thirty years and the loom still surprises me. If you want to collaborate, tell me the colours in your room and I will tell you what I can make that will work in it.