taroudant: The tanneries

Fes tanneries are a cliche of guidebooks and postcards with their multi-coloured vats of dye. Taroudant's a more shades of grey but the visitor experience was vastly superior. Firstly they don't smell as much. We were given sprigs of basil but they were unecessary. I think this is because although they use pigeon poo they do not use cow's pee as a mordant as in Fes.Secondly whereas in Fes you gaze down at a distance from a rooftop in Taroudant you walk round and can see much more of what is being done.
The whole tanning process takes 6 weeks but it only takes about half an hour to be shown round. The guide had excellent english.
The animals are slaughtered at the slaughter house across the road. The skins are first washed in soap and water then hung out to dry. They are then soaked in lime which loosens the hair so that they can be scraped. They are then steeped in pigeon poo the ammonia of which neutralises the lime which would otherwise cause the leather to crack. They are then soaked in flour and water to get rid of the pigeon poo and washed again. The colouring is done by soaking in a solution of bark. The sheepskins are whitened with pumice stone.
The wool which is removed from sheepskins is used for spinning wool to make clothes but not for carpets for which only shorn wool is used.
Taroudant tannery being far south is noted by the guidebooks as from time to time having exotic skins whose sale is forbidden and which cannot legally be imported into Europe but yesterday the most exotic skins were of gazelles and camel legs.
Some leather workers have studios there and the tannery sells some high quality crafts, particularly handbags, boots, shoes and sandals. Beloved was handling the camera and unimpressed by this female flummery so I only have pictures of belts and luggge :(. I was taken with a spectacle case but unfortunately my rather large sunspecs would not fit in it.