In 2005 we did not even realise there was a pottery in Tamegroute although it has been there for centuries. The founders of the zaouia brought potters from Fez to start it and there a still similarities in style. Now you cannot miss the row of shops that have sprung up along the road.
The pottery is at the back using only traditional techniques. Its main specialty is a green manganese glaze. It is used for lots of things but particularly for roof tiles used on mosques and palaces and every mosque in Morocco got its tile from Tamegroute.
There are also Fez like blue and multi-coloured patterned ware and a range of Henna glazes. I bought one.
In a perfect world it would go back to Wales to house my aspdistra but that means it is too big for hand luggage so I guess it will stay here.
The manganese glaze is mixed on the ground and then left for a day or so to before being qpplied to the pots.
They are then baked in the kilns dug into a mud bank and fed with local vegetaion the traditional way.
The kilns reach temperatures of 1200C-1400c and the pots are baked for 7 hours. All the temperature judgements are done by sight and experience. They actually have some newer kilns but the potters prefer to use only traditional methods so they are now very expensive store cupboards.
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