i. An endemic conifer

The Barbary thuya, Tetraclinis articulata, is a Mediterranean conifer almost exclusively Moroccan. Its range extends from the Atlantic coast of Essaouira to the foothills of the High Atlas. Morocco holds nearly 80% of the world's reserves — a rare forest heritage that justifies a State-regulated exploitation.

Gallery

scroll →

Two woods are used. The trunk and branch wood gives more uniform tones, from light brown to orange-red. The root wood, called "elm burl" in France, presents sought-after moirés and speckled patterns: it is what makes the price of Essaouira marquetry. Its extraction is done without a machine, by hand, so as not to damage it.

ii. Three techniques

1. Marquetry — inlay of small pieces of different woods (thuya, lemonwood, ebony, mahogany) and precious materials (mother-of-pearl, silver threads, shells) onto a joinery support. It is the speciality of Essaouira.
2. Carving — the form is revealed in the mass of the wood, without assembly. Boxes, statuettes, cane heads.
3. Veneering — fine slivers of root wood glued onto a larger support (table, panel). It allows pieces that nature alone could not give.

iii. The gesture, the tool, the time

The wood arrives at the workshop raw, cut with machete and saw. It is then dried for several months — even more depending on the thickness — to prevent shrinkage and cracks. Then comes cutting into laths, planing, then chiselling.

The emblematic tool is the cuccia (a Spanish term that entered the craft vocabulary of Essaouira): a sharpened blade used to clean, deburr and finish the marquetry. To it are added files, chisels, a flat hammer. The marquetry maker draws each form on the board, hollows out the spot with the blade, embeds the tessera, polishes.

For an average piece — a worked box — count 150 to 200 hours. For a large table, several months.

iv. Essaouira, an open-air workshop

Essaouira today hosts a unique concentration of the art of thuya: more than 80 craft cooperatives and 120 artisans listed in the Bab Doukkala craft complex alone. The Cooperative of Thuya-Wood Marquetry Makers, founded in 1948 near Place Moulay Hassan, remains the reference place — adjoining shop, demonstrations, a guarantee of Souiri origin.

The sector supports a whole social chain. Young people, often drawn by quick tourism, are few in entering the workshop. The cooperatives have the mission of training the next generation. In Essaouira, craft is not folklore: it is an economy.

v. A forest under pressure

Thuya, like all precious woods, lives under threat. Deforestation worsens with the urbanisation of land and rising demand. The State regulates felling by quotas, but enforcement remains imperfect. For the sector, the stake is threefold: reforest seriously, certify the origin of the woods (Essaouira thuya label), reinvent the pieces by combining thuya with other woods (lemonwood, acacia) so as no longer to depend on a single material.