1000+ years

Fès, Morocco

In the world of handicrafts, leather is Morocco's number one export to countries like Spain, France and India.  Although factories exist today to keep up with demand, to clean, wash, treat, soften and dye the animal skins, places like this tannery in the heart of Fès are still in operation after more than 1000 years following the same backbreaking manual process that they used in the past.

Once the animal skins are cleaned, washed, treated and softened, the final step is to dye the leather traditionally using natural vegetable dyes:  poppy flower (red), indigo (blue), henna (orange), cedar wood (brown), mint (green) and saffron (yellow).  A few of these colors can be seen above. 

Check out this video by Barbara Weibel from her blog for the full process.