Meet the Master Maker Behind Our Iconic Plasterwork

Plasterwork is one of Morocco’s most iconic artisanal disciplines, and here at El Fenn it shapes almost every surface you touch including walls, floors, baths, courtyards, archways. Two distinct traditions sit behind it: tadelakt and gebs.

TADELAKT

Tadelakt, (pronounced ta-dee-lact) is a form of lime plaster, mixed and applied entirely by hand, that gives walls and floors their richly coloured, tactile feel. Once applied, it’s rubbed smooth with stones and finished with olive oil soap to create a soft, waterproof sheen — which is why we’ve also used it for baths, sinks, fireplaces and even bed frames.

 

The colour comes from pigment mixed in by hand just before application, so no two surfaces are ever quite the same. Tadelakt develops a beautiful patina over time too — durable and robust, but fading gently in patches, which only adds to its character. The word itself derives from an Amazigh term meaning “to rub in,” and while it’s thought to descend from qadad, a plastering technique from Yemen, Moroccan artisans made it entirely their own.

 

 

CARVED PLASTERWORK

 

Alongside it is carved plasterwork, known locally as gebs – the ornate, hand-chiselled patterns found across our courtyards, archways and colonnades. Gebs is carved dry and entirely freehand, without stencils or moulds, using techniques passed down through generations of master craftsmen, or mellems.

 

 

MEET MOHAMMED, THE EL FENN MASTER CARVER

My father was a builder in the Ourika Valley, where I grew up, and he worked with a plasterer on construction projects — that’s how I started learning, aged 15. Back then I did commercial plastering, but after working on a hotel project in Essaouira and seeing artisans doing hand-carved plaster, I decided to become an apprentice with a mellem, a master craftsman.

It took four years. I started by just preparing his materials, but bit by bit he began showing me how to work the plaster and I’d practise after work. When he saw how interested I was, he gave me small pieces of work and showed me the techniques and tools. Four years later, I became a mellem myself, at 21.

More than twenty years on, I’m still interested in every part of the craft. Moroccan carved plasterwork traditions stretch back centuries, with almost limitless shapes and designs. Each has a name, but the core patterns you see again and again are dafra (plaits), taourek (leaves) and shamsiya (stars and suns).

The plaster itself is made from gypsum. Two layers go on first, and the third and final layer is carved using chisels and picks of different widths. The geometric patterns are rooted in mathematical principles, but everything is done freehand — no stencils, no guides. The real skill is timing: carving the plaster at exactly the moment it’s firm enough to hold a clean edge, but not yet fully set.

Here at El Fenn I’ve worked on the courtyards and colonnades. How long it takes depends on the intricacy and scale — the large carved archway in the orange and lemon courtyard, for instance, took about four weeks.

Being a mellem means you have a certain level of knowledge, but what makes the work interesting is that you’re always discovering and developing new techniques — you can never really say you’re a true mellem. You learn the basics when you train, but even today people ask for designs I’ve never done, and I have to expand what I know.

DISCOVER MOROCCAN ‘GEBS’ FOR YOURSELF

Mohammed’s carving is everywhere here at El Fenn, but gebs is worth seeking out beyond the hotel too.

The Ben Youssef Madrasa in the medina is widely considered the finest example in the city. It’s courtyard walls carved with floral motifs, interlacing patterns and Quranic calligraphy, rising above a band of zellige tile and below a canopy of carved cedar. Bahia Palace is another good stop, its reception halls and courtyards dense with gebs on a grander, more theatrical scale.