The rare craft of drawloom weaving
- Hassane weaves traditional Moroccan belts, faithful to original designs
- His craft and workshop are the passion of his lifetime
- He compares modern computing to drawloom programming
Hassane Kabil’s father destined him for a religious career, pushing him to study at the Koranic school. Hassane refused and as a result, did not go to school at all. He learnt to speak, write, and read classical Arabic and French by himself. From his young years, he spent a lot of time in his father’s workshop, fascinated by the little balls of silken threads strewn on the floor. When Hassane was around 15 years old, he decided to build his own drawloom, a very special and elaborate loom which was invented in the 7th century and which, still nowadays, has not been supplanted in terms of the beauty and quality of the fabrics it can produce. The most precious textiles from the Mughal courts to the European Imperial palaces were made on drawlooms for 12 centuries. Today, only two drawloom workshops are still in activity: Hassane’s in Fez and another in Varanasi, India.
Interview
- What do you specialise in?
- The city of Fez has been and still is famous for its wedding belts. These wide belts (approximately 60 cm wide and 3 m long) were traditionally worn by brides on their wedding day. They are extremely beautiful, and the ornamentation is very elaborate. I started my workshop to reproduce antique Fez belts.
- What is your production about today?
- I have reproduced the complicated décor of several belts. Some of them have been purchased by the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris. Today, my production goes in two directions: on one hand, trying to understand our cultural heritage by still reproducing the most complicated antique patterns, and on the other hand, being fully in our time by creating contemporary designs.
- What are your sources of inspiration?
- My goal is to push the technical side ever further. Very humbly, I would say that I think I am the only craftsman in the world capable of creating, programming, and executing a new design on a drawloom. I keep trying to produce different and contemporary designs. The Moroccan Royal Palace has ordered fabric from my workshop in the past, to make a special bag for her Royal Highness.
- Could your craft be considered in danger?
- Working on a drawloom is the story of my life. I have dedicated all my time, money, and energy to the passion of my life. Drawloom is an instrument as beautiful and complex as an organ. Programming on a drawloom is at the origin of binary programming which gave rise to computer programming. I tried to train apprentices but without much success because it is not easy to transmit the passion of a lifetime.
Hassane Kabil is an expert artisan: he began his career in 1976
Works
Where
Hassane Kabil
