Tunisia is undoubtedly the country of craftsmanship par excellence. The professional activities in this sector, one of the most dynamic of the Tunisian economy, are among the oldest and best distributed across the country.
Craftsmanship, generate 300,000 jobs and represent 4% of GDP and around 25% of national exports. it accounts for 11% of the active population, 85% of whom are women. The sector creates 5000 jobs a year.
Craftsmanship is the artistic expression of the rich traditions and culture of an entire people. In Tunisia, a country marked by the influences of many successive civilizations, crafts have, over the centuries, assimilated know-how from different traditions and cultures, to generate a rich and diversified craftsmanship in a harmonious marriage between Africa, the Orient and the West. Tunsian craftsmanship is much diversified and it spreads all over the country.
Each of the 24 governorates has its local characteristics, both in trades and products: more than 75 different activities, from the most traditional to the most modern, including artistic creation.This diversity of craft production allows everyone to build their future in accordance with their capacities
GARMENT TRADES…Excellence of a Tunisian know-how
Traditional clothes
If today, Tunisians dress and adorn themselves in the same way, this was not the case at the beginning of the last century. Each region, each village had its folk costumes.
The traditional female costume is characterized by its variety from one region to another. However the essential piece that constitutes it is the tunic "cut sewn". Designed in large and simple shapes, tunics are often sleeveless, cut in wool, cotton or silk fabrics, depending on the circumstances. Embroidery is the hallmark of different regional costumes.
The traditional male costume has its regional specicities while referring to ancestral Arab origins for its general appearance (loose fitting suit).
The Kaddroun, the blouse, the bden are still worn mostly in rural areas but it is the Jebba which has established itself as a national traditional dress. The Tunisian Jebba has bene ted from Andalusian and Turkish influences to become the one we know nowadays.
The Tunisian traditional costume is the repository of a cultural heritage that has always been safeguarded and constantly enriched. This is one of the areas in which artistic creation has been most strongly marked
Manual embroidery …
This art consists in adding flat or embossed elements to an already manufactured fabric.
Ribbons, sequins, beads or others are added by hand on a drawing transposed thanks to a layer or a white carbon on a stretched fabric on an embroidery loom. This precision work is always done by hand by experienced craftsmen.
Nowadays, embroidery has encompassed new techniques such as collage, burning or painting.
Nowadays, this art is used to make formal wear, luxury lingerie, linens and for the decoration of interiors and accessories.
CRAFT TRADES
The materials, techniques and forms of the craft product have always been reviewed and updated by creative artisans of the time, thus allowing it to preserve the place that has been his in interior design, decoration, furniture, accessories for domestic use as well as in body ornaments.
Whether using animal or plant fibers, wood, metal, glass, clay or stone, the craft product has always adapted to the cultural and customary motivations and needs that define its true function and value
WEAVING CRAFTS…The treasures of the country
Floor mats and wall tapestry Tunisia is famous for its carpets, mergoums, klims and other tapestries and weavings. At all times and still today, from north to south, in cities and the countryside, weaving activities abound.
Impregnated with customs and regional peculiarities, the weavings meet the daily needs and sometimes combine several functions such as flijs, himls, ghrara, ouazra, houli, hambel, gtif… For history books, it is claimed that "Kemla", the daughter of a Turkish governor of Kairouan, was the first to introduce in Kairouan in 1830 the knotted carpet of Anatolian inspiration.
Handmade textile...hand weaving
Weaving is most often performed on traditional looms, embroidery is done by hand and it sometimes takes months, the dye is sometimes made only with natural dyes and pigments...A complexity of realization that makes of the product obtained, be it a carpet, a scarf, clothing or other, an object loaded with values and history.
VEGETABLE FIBER TRADES…Long established techniques
The work of plant fibers - a very abundant natural material in Tunisia - is back. The famous Kouffa (basket), known worldwide, is a utilitarian object that a majority of Tunisians take with them to the market. The mat, a carpet of alfa, rush or colorful palm, has always been part of rural and urban furniture. Today a lot of everyday utensils (basket, pouf, fan ...) continue to be made from these fibers.
The city of Nabeul is the most important production center of rush mats "smâr".
We find wall mats (qiyas) or floor and sleeping mats (hsira) in mosques.
The Sahel and Sfax are renowned for their production of utilitarian plaiting materials, scourtins used in the traditional transport of products. Today, this rural craft has turned to the production of household items such as doormats or hall mats
Basketry which uses palm leaves is an important part of crafts in the south of the country; baskets, fans and hats are the main products. Wicker is used in making baskets. Basketry (cane) furniture is a recent production that is growing popular with an increasingly modern clientele
In Tunisia, the most used plants are the rush and the wicker whose assembly techniques change according to the material, sometimes braided, sometimes intertwined
LEATHERWORKING AND FOOTWEAR…A legacy from the past
With its variety of shapes and embroidery, the saddle was once the masterpiece of leather craftsmanship. In addition to the balga (traditional shoe), leather craftsmen also made all kinds of babouches, such as besmaq, rihya and kontra. The babouches of men were generally of natural color, and those of women colored and embroidered with silk threads, cotton, gold and silver…The art of footwear has lost none of its vitality, as evidenced by the new collections of Tunisian craftsmen. Leatherwork and its range of handbags and travel bags, briefcases, footstools, belts, wallets, and purses - is very trendy, with its modern forms, its bright colors and mix of materials.
WOODWORKING…Decoration and functionality
The antique furniture become rare pieces. Often non-functional, they become decorative elements in modern interiors
Woodworking is strongly rooted in craftsmanship; the Tunisian heritage has an abundance of masterpieces made using different kinds of this material illustrating different techniques.
The scarcity of wood has allowed the development of major arts related to this noble material: sculpture, latticework and painting.
The olive wood, which is usually used to make kitchen utensils and farm tools, is suitable for the production of various decorative objects that are highly appreciated.
GOLDSMITHING AND SILVERWARE…Tradition and modernity
The history of goldsmithing dates back to 3000 BC. A symbol of wealth throughout the centuries, jewelry making is still an art closely linked to the evolution of civilizations and artistic movements.
The history of Tunisian jewelery dates back to the dawn of the Punic era. Today, we still use signs, symbols and forms that go back to that period of time.
This century-old craft has been enriched over the centuries by various Roman, Byzantine, Arabic, Turkish and Andalusian contributions. Each civilization has modeled, according to its own criteria, women's ornaments, using different materials and different forms.
Today, the distinction long maintained between rural silver jewelry and the urban gold jewelry has finally faded. The variety of materials used, the multiplication of centers of production and the evolution of tastes and fashions have stripped jewelery of its symbolic value to keep only its market value.
METALWORKING TRADES…Traditional and creative
Wrought iron, white copper, enamelled copper, metals are kings in the making of trinkets and utilitarian objects: vases, trays, teapots, pots, kettle, candy boxes, dishes, lamps, braziers...The traditional techniques have gone beyond the functional requirements to become a means of artistic expression.
Wrought iron
With the technique of wrought iron, ironworkers transformed everyday objects into artistic objects. Adapted to current market trends, also transformed by a happy marriage of materials (wood and wrought iron, blown glass and wrought iron, mosaic and wrought iron), a wide variety of products are now available to local and tourist customers. Young designers innovate and assert a Tunisian style that is winning the heart of international customers.
Copper
Copper is much in use by artisans. Copper craftsmanship experienced its golden age in Tunisia during the XVIII century, especially in large cities (Tunis, Sfax, Kairouan). Copper objects were an important part of the bride's trousseau in urban families until the mid-20th century. Today, carving is becoming widespread and is embellished with silver wire inlays, especially for yellow copper trays. Very popular, the hammered copper is used to make decorative objects and tableware
CLAY AND STONE TRADES…ancestral know-how
In Tunisia, traditional pottery and artistic ceramics, the art of pottery and ceramics is several thousands of years old.
Wheel thrown pottery, made mainly by men, is an art from ancient Egypt, Phenicia, Greece and Rome.
The potters of Djerba were probably the first to make wheel thrown pottery.
The craftsmen of Guellala (Djerba) are at the origin of the creation of other pottery centers on the Tunisian coast, like those of Tunis, Nabeul or Moknine.
But if the porous pottery "chaouat" is associated with Guellala, enamelled, yellow, green or brown pottery, has developed in Nabeul. The potters of this city owe their international fame to this technique.
The pottery modeled by women is mainly found in rural areas and is essentially utilitarian. Sejnane's potters, who produced everyday containers for domestic use, developed more modern ranges of trinkets and decorative items inspired by their immediate familiar surroundings. Charm fish, cats, turtles, stylized birds and naive figurines (maternity dolls), are the main components of this new production.
Other utensils are more sophisticated, such as multiple compratment saucers and zoomorphic braziers, sometimes stylized censers, small tray tables or beautiful jewelery boxes.
Mosaic
Tunisia has the richest collection of ancient mosaics in the world. It was in Roman times and especially from the second century that this art developed to a point that we can speak of a true African school, marked by a great mastery of figurative representation and a rich and refined palette.
Even today, it is possible to obtain reproductions of ancient mosaics that skilful craftsmen work hard to make lighter and more modern for decorative purposes
Cut stone
Much used in Tunisian architecture, carved limestone, beige or pink, called "khadal", comes from Dar Chaabane (Nabeul). It is used for the manufacture of arches, door frames and windows, and even capitals. It is a very popular element of decoration in today's constructions.
GLASS WORK…Handicrafts and art trades
Glass is a very old practice deeply rooted in the cultural history of our country. The Punics inherited this practice from their ancestors, the Phoenicians, to adapt and develop it in Carthage and Kerkouane.
After the decadence of the Roman Empire, Tunisian glassmakers continued to produce glass the traditional, namely by free-blowing or in a mold.
The Muslim Middle Ages saw the advent of a glass craft in Tunisia, which boomed like in the other countries of the Islamic East: Delicately molded and carved ornaments and especially a wealth of golden decorations and enamelled works.
The dynasties of the Aghlabids, Fatimids and Zirides who sought to compete with the splendor of the court of Baghdad, developed, from the ninth century a glass craft which remained active until the mid-fourteenth century which saw the elimination of free-blowing blowing in favor of industrial production.
After an eclipse of a few centuries, glass returned to Tunisia thanks to the efforts of the National Office of Tunisian handicrafts which reintroduced the traditional techniques. Creative craftsmen have taken over and now express themselves in several registers that combine ancestral traditions and modern practices.
OTHER TRADES
Handcrafted toys and dolls...Puppeteer
A puppeteer is a craftsman who makes dolls, decors or other objects intended to reproduce a scene of the present or the past / future.
Manipulating several techniques (seeds, threads, rods ..), but also several materials (mainly wood, paper mache, fabrics, painting, ceramics ..), the puppeteer is a multidisciplinary artist who masters wood carving , clay modeling, sewing and sometimes even the creation of jewels
The Sidi Bou Saïd cage
Being the only one of its kind, the Sidi Bous Said cage is one of the flagship products of Tunisian craftsmanship. This aviary made of wire and cupola, inspired by the arabesques of the wrought iron window (Zlabiya), takes its bright colors - the blue and the white - from one of the most beautiful villages of Tunisia.
Diverted from its original function, it is today a simple object of decoration. Some craftsmen gave it a new look.
In wire and painted and varnished olive wood, it becomes a charming trinket. Made with blown glass mounted on a metal structure, it turns into a lamp with stylized shapes
Damascened-inlays
D a m a s c e n e d - i n l a y s (from the Italian damaschino, derived from Damascus) is an artistic technique, originally from Damascus (Syria), which consists of embedding a copper, gold or silverwire wire, on a metal surface, usually in iron or in steel, to create a decorative pattern.
The result of this inlaying is called a damascened-inlay.
This type of decoration was very common in medieval art. Endangered, this delicate art is still used in the decoration of spurs, stirrups, and saber guards but also for the manufacture of vases, plates, bracelets, rings, incense burner...
Manufacture of perfumes, artisanal distillation and natural cosmetics
Being located in the Mediterranean basin with great climatic variations from North to South, Tunisia is an ideal place for the growth of aromatic and medicinal plants.
The cultivation of these plants remains traditional. It is limited to allotment gardens and pleasure gardens.
The essential oils use many plants such as rosemary, jasmine, lavender...to obtain compositions with multiple benefits such as neroli oil, coffee and green tea slimming oil, massage oils, rosemary, lemon white mugwort, marjoram and citrus essences...and can be used in food (flavors), perfumes (odorous molecules), or in cosmetics and well-being (substances treating the skin and hair, handmade soaps,…).
Based on traditional recipes, essential oils and natural cosmetics handcrafted in Tunisia are exported to international markets.
