"FTE helps us accomplish a lot of things. It has invested in equipment, like a ladder, a cart and a pottery wheel. The addition of these tools to our operations has helped free us some valuable time and ease our working conditions." Hosni Yunis Mohamed, potter and trainer.
About 40 families and their almost a couple hundred artisans form Nazla Pottery. They all live and work in this small village, which has specialized in terracotta pottery for thousands of years.
This is a utilitarian, rustic-looking style of pottery that has been a part of Egyptian life since the beginning of time. Its recorded uses go as far back as Pharaonic eras. Traditional uses of these terracotta pots haven’t changed much throughout the centuries, yet are as varied as their shapes.
Larger pieces, like the “zeer” (or amphora) “boukla” and the “hinab” have kept water, cheeses and milk fresh and cool in the smoldering sun of this oasis. Smaller pieces, like “asaa” bowls are still used to dispense fowl feed or keep perishables fresh and dry, as plastic containers do in most modern households nowadays. Cooking versions of these pots also exist, such as the “idrat fuul,” which as the name indicates cooks the famous Egyptian breakfast staple of fava beans. Double duty ovens, like the “shawaya,” with its removable top, double as a furnace or a barbecue grill. Our artisans even recreate bedroom warmers, called “men’ad,” which are delicately decorated and can quickly warm up a bedroom on the chilliest of evenings.
The composition of the pieces is of clay and either ash or straw shavings, which makes them surprisingly light in weight and easy to carry. The molding of the pieces is extremely taxing, as a ball of mixed clay is manually rolled and shaped with a wide pestle called “a’lab” on a bed of sawdust, following the prehistoric hammer and anvil technique. Additional rims or handles can be added on the pottery wheel, a method that goes back to the Roman Empire. Each piece takes a couple of days to dry under the sun, and once the artisan has created enough pottery pieces to fill his oven, he bakes them at a temperature of at least 700 degrees Celsius, which explains why these pieces can easily sustain the heat of stoves, coals or conventional ovens later on.
Although its demand has decreased with the increased modernization of Egypt, Nazla pottery remains a fundamental part of the identity of Al Fayoum. After all, in spite of a fluctuating demand, the bulk of Nazla residents still rely on pottery to make a living. As the town’s own name reminds us, “Al Nazla,” or “depression,” is located in the village’s drainage valley. Although this topography makes for a beautiful landscape, it also brings about harsh conditions for the artisans to sell their goods, as they have to transport the pottery on a donkey up a cliff in order to set shop by the road and sell the pieces to other Al Fayoum residents and tourists passing by the oasis. Partnering up with FTE has allowed potters like Hosni Younis Mohamed to sell a consistent amount of his pieces in outlets like our store in Cairo, or even expose him to other markets by introducing his goods to importers in Europe.