ARTISANS
ANUT, at its core, is about people; fostering communities and engaging with our craftspeople on an individual level. The artisans we work with span from the potteries of Fayoum to the textile weavers of Akhmim - Ancient Egypt’s historic textile centre - and local cooperatives of women embroiderers in Cairo. Through a series of community programmes, ANUT strives to create an ecosystem for Egyptian artisans and creatives in which craftsmanship, entrepreneurship, and culture can thrive.
FAYOUM POTTERY
MEET OUR MAKERS
Neatly partitioned fields in overlapping tints of green are framed by the glorious sapphire Qarun Lake with a backdrop of rolling desert dunes in the distance. Sunflowers - servants of the sun, in Arabic - stand proud and tall, preening in the golden haze. The little village of Fayoum is cradled in this landscape, it embodies these surrounding colours. The walls that run along the narrow streets are painted in bright shades, with bold designs that loop and swirl and sing. Pots, jars, plates, mugs, platters, and tiles line up in neat rows, hang on walls, compete for attention on shelves packed with imagination. People are warm-hearted, doors are always open, tea is always ready to be served to visitors and strangers alike.
Now known as Egypt’s pottery village, Evelyne Porret’s legacy lives on in her eponymous pottery school & in every independent workshop that has sprung up as a result. The primary creative outlet of the village is pottery, but the range and variety of outputs speak for themselves. People seem to inhale creativity here and exhale individuality.
The Potters of Fayoum
Mohammed Mahmoud
Mohammed Mahmoud is an utter personality and a dear old friend of Anut’s who continues to be responsible for some of our most adventurous creations. It’s been 37 years since his pottery journey began: one of the 24 very first students to be taught by Evelyne Porret herself before she even set up her eponymous pottery school. He never wanted to be a potter, not at first - as a child his dream was to become a mechanical engineer. His very first models were made in clay and now, years on, it is in clay that he continues to invent. That’s what made him fall in love with his pottery: the horreya mutlaqa - the absolute freedom - that allows him to create.
The Potters of Fayoum
Mohammed El-Gamal
Mohammed El-Gamal is Anut’s oldest collaborator, from our earliest venture into the world of pottery. His passion for the art is beyond evident - he loves it like he loves his wife, he tells us laughing. Even more so than by words, it is made clear by his actions:
Mohammed ran the pottery school for seven years when Evelyne was no longer able to and, even now, as he shows us around the school the kids adore him, keen to show him their current projects and new creations. He recalls his own time there fondly, as some of the best days of his life, and is keen to spread his love for the craft to the coming generations.
The Potters of Fayoum
Sara
Sara is only 20 but she has been working in the workshop that she herself set up for over a year now. Her family couldn’t afford for her to finish her schooling, but her mother was a friend of Ibrahim’s who ran the pottery school at the time, so she managed to start attending classes there. She spent her time there learning everything there was to learn until she felt ready to do it herself. That's when she set up her own workshop.
Why pottery? It started out just as a hobby, something to pass the time. Now it’s the one thing that makes her feel at ease. Now, she tells me excitedly, as a result of her workshop and the money she has made, she is finally able to rejoin the local high school and carry on with her education.
The Potters of Fayoum
Sameh
Sameh and his older brother Osama learnt the craft of pottery under the guiding hand of local craftsman Hakim. Helping him out in his workshop, the boys saved up until they were able to rent a workspace and start selling their own work. But Osama started military service two years ago, and since then 21-year-old Sameh has been running the shop on his own. He too is waiting to be called up to military service, so it will be a while yet until him and his brother can work together at the shop. But he is not bothered - he’s in it for the art, the beauty that he can create with his own hands, and a couple years away won’t change that. He still has a long way ahead of him, he says, he couldn’t see himself doing anything else.
The Potters of Fayoum
Hani
A little shy, but quietly self-assured, Hani welcomes us into his workshop, his wife offers us some drinks, three small children weaving around their legs as they talk. He tells us that he too studied under Evelyne at the pottery school and that in 2018, straight after finishing university and his military service he opened up this little workshop, with the help of his new wife. He says it’s all about independence for him, he never wanted to be a slave to one of those big companies in the city; this was a way of working - and creating - by himself, with the help of his wife, and for himself, for his family. It’s clear how successfully he achieved that - his stunning painted designs speak for themselves.