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Co-Weave Fuwwah Lab Day 2



The theme of today was industrial heritage and contemporary crafts. We first stopped at the Tarbush Factory Gates (1824), which I reckon is the first factory in the whole SWANA region (check out this beautiful publication by DAIK member Ralph Bodenstein).



If you want to see how tarbush is made today, one of the last workshops can be found in Mu'ataz Ladin Allah Street, Historic Cairo.
We had a stop at the local club - generously offered by Mr Yasser Ragab, Chairman of al-Marwa Association Fuwwah - where we had a quick introduction to the concept of “tura”, the base unit used to weave patterns into carpets, offered by participant designer Mohamed aka Amro Magdy.



A tour of some of the weaving workshops allowed us to meet the weavers in their environment, where the looms swing and clang for hours every day, and dyed threads hang to dry on balconies. We have no idea how many workshops there are in the city, but it feels like every large door in every building might have one, as passing through the streets it often happens to have a chance to peek inside one.









The rest of the day was spent engaging in the co-weave session, this time held at the 18th century Raba’ al-Khattabiyah, in the historic city centre, just in front of the Abu al-Makarim Mosque and Shrine. This is a commercial building with large spaces on the ground floor and rooms over several levels, around a central staircase. It was used for storing goods and housing travelling merchants.


To encourage the effective sharing of ideas between designers and weavers we created a template with questions and some shared information (the statement submitted by the designer when applying for the Lab and the three cards chosen by the weaver on Day 1). It was a true joy to see designers and weavers engage in true dialogue and discuss ideas and values.













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