At Aït Ben Haddou, a historic spot on the caravan route between the Sahara desert and Marrakesh, we took a cooking class, making tagine. While they were heating on the stove, we visited Anknif Glaoui Woman’s Carpet Cooperative, and I completely surprised myself by buying the rug shown above for our living room. It was made by hand by a nomad woman who grew the sheep, carded the wool, spun the wool, dyed the wool with natural dyes, and then wove it with detail and care on an upright wall loom. (You can see the some of the steps demonstrated below.) The woman artist gets 80% of the proceeds sold through this cooperative.

This was an interesting experience for me, because I did not go in intending to purchase a rug. However, I had complete and immediate clarity about doing it, even though I wasn’t able to check colors or size, or get in touch with my husband–who was asleep time zones away. I bought it without asking about spending our collective money on it, or whether he liked it. I was pretty sure it would go with our room, but it was a print replacing a solid, and with my artwork also in the room, there was already a lot going on, so it felt like a bit of a risk. Nevertheless, my heart heard the heart of the artist, and I knew unwaveringly that I was supposed to get it. The feeling of buying it felt like devout obedience more than anything else. They are mailing it to us, and the fact that I did this still surprises me.

Then, after returning to eat the meal we had prepared, we saw a demonstration on how argon oil is made (laboriously it turns out and by hand), and then we drove the rest of the day, back over the Atlas Mountains to the last stop of our trip, Marrakesh.