Handmade messenger bag

This leather is worked in one of the tanneries in Fez or Marrakech in Morocco. Tanneries are open-air and consist of many filled stone vases, with a wide range of dyes and various liquids spread like a large palette of water colours. Dozens of men, tough and resistant marrakchi or fassis, many of them standing up to their waists in the dyes, work under the burning sun and trample on an impressive number of sheep, camel and lamb skins, which they dry on the medina’s terraces, and then process and transform into high-quality leather goods. The process has changed very little since medieval times, which makes these tanneries absolutely fascinating to visit.