Buying handmade metalwork from Marrakech: a practical guide

There are three ways to buy handmade metalwork from Marrakech: in the medina souks, directly from a workshop, or online. The metal can be exactly the same in all three; what changes is how sure you can be of what you are getting, whether the price is fixed, and whether you can have something made.

We are a workshop, so we are not neutral — but everything below applies wherever you buy.

Souk, workshop or online?

	Medina souks	Workshop	Online
Choice	Enormous	The maker's own range	Varies
Prices	Negotiated	Fixed	Fixed
Can you see it made?	Sometimes	Yes	No
Made to order	Rarely	Yes	Sometimes
Shipping abroad	Arranged by the seller, variable	Arranged by the workshop	Built in

The souks are worth the visit for the spectacle alone. Lamps and lanterns are concentrated north of Jemaa el-Fna and around Place des Ferblantiers. Bargaining is expected; a first price is an opening, not an insult.

A workshop lets you see how the piece is made, talk to the person who made it, and order something that does not exist yet.

Online, look for the dimensions, the metal and the technique stated plainly — "solid brass, hand-pierced" rather than "brass-effect" or "metal".

Check what you are buying

Whatever the setting, two checks take a minute:

1. Is it solid? Brass, copper and bronze are not magnetic. If a magnet sticks, it is plated steel.
2. Is it handmade? Hand-punched holes vary slightly; machine-cut ones are identical.

The full list is in hand-pierced or machine-cut?. If you are not sure which metal you are looking at, see brass, bronze or copper.

What things cost

Our own price, as a reference point for handmade work in solid metal: the Star chandelier, 1 m tall and hand-pierced in solid brass, is 5,000 MAD. Commissions are quoted at a fixed price — see below.

The cost of a handmade piece is mostly hours. That is why a large hand-pierced lamp cannot be cheap, and why a very low price is worth a second look.

Commissions

If you want something that is not in the range — a size, a set, a matching piece — we make it to order. Commissions take four to six weeks, are quoted as a fixed price within two days, and on runs of more than six pieces we send a sample before we make the rest. How a quote is built, line by line, is in what a commission actually costs.

Getting it home

• In Morocco: we deliver by insured, tracked courier in two to four working days; see shipping.
• Abroad: quoted piece by piece, because a crated chandelier and a boxed bowl are different problems. What is involved — packing, carriers, customs, voltage — is in shipping a Moroccan chandelier abroad.
• In your luggage: small pieces travel well wrapped in clothes. A large lamp does not; send it.

Visiting the workshop

We are in Guéliz, the new town, a short taxi ride from the medina. You can see work on the bench, handle the range, and talk through a commission. Visiting hours and directions are here — please check them before you come.

If you want to understand the craft before you buy, start with our guide to Moroccan metalwork.