Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Embroidery
Embroidery is an important skill among Jordanian women and most learn the craft at a
young age. Teenagers traditionally embroider the clothes they will need as married wo-
men. Embroidery provides an occasion for women to socialise, often with a pot of tea
spiced up with a pinch of local gossip. Palestinian embroidery is famed throughout the re-
gion and you'll see the characteristic red embroidery cross-stitch on traditional dresses,
known as
roza,
in shops across Jordan. Purses featuring intricate flower designs in silk
thread make portable mementos.
Mosaics
The craft of mosaic-making has a noble and distinguished lineage in Jordan. Mosaics are
made from tiny squares of naturally coloured rock called tesserae. The first part of the
process is preparing the stone, which is hewn in blocks from the rock face and then cut in-
to thin cuboid rods. These are then snipped by pincers into the tesserae. The smallest
tesserae make the most intricate designs but they are much harder to work with and the
mosaics take longer to assemble. It's rather like the knots on a carpet - the more tesserae
per centimetre, the finer and more valuable the mosaic. Many workshops in the Madaba
area will ship items home.
MAKING MOSAICS
Push the door open on a mosaic workshop and it's like entering the Hall of the Mountain King. Clouds of dust
plume from the masonry saws and the workspace echoes with the screech of metal against rock and the persistent
snapping of the workers' pincers as they cut stone rods into tiny, coloured squares. During our visit, all the workers
engaged in this dedicated craft (from the stone-cutters to the assembly teams) were women. One of the ladies dusted
her hands against her overcoat and, parking her mobile phone in among the tweezers, the paste brush and the glue
pot, gave us an ad hoc tour.
Artists, Mayzoon explained, sketch a design freehand or trace the image from books, in the same way as their an-
cient predecessors would have copied scenes from pattern books. Designs usually feature everyday life, with depic-
tions of plants and animals (look for the chicken - almost every mosaic seems to feature one). Hunting and
viniculture, personification of the seasons, and religious or mythological scenes are typical subjects. But it's the de-
tail that captivates - the bell on a gazelle's neck, palm trees at an oasis, a wry human smile.
Once the design is in place, the tesserae are then painstakingly arranged - traditionally on a thick coating of wet
lime and ash to form permanent flooring. Today they are more likely to be attached to wet plaster and affixed to
wooden boards for use as table tops or wall decorations.
The tour concluded and Mayzoon returned to the assembly table. 'You took our photograph, no?' one of the
ladies said. I was about to apologise when she added 'Please, take it again. This time with all of us!' A shaft of bril-
