Lebanese Handicrafts: Keep Lebanon in Your Mind
Lebanese Handicrafts
“Keep Lebanon in your mind”
A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft, is one among a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by hand or by using only simple tools with an esthetic sense born of historical, social and environmental influences.
Blown glass
It is a very ancient technique, the oldest among the handicrafts, where the glassmaker blows air into the hot molten glass and the art of transformation into attractive shapes begins. Glassmakers create many shapes and colors as water glasses, wineglasses, beer mugs, water pitchers, vases, candle sticks…
Blown glass workshops appeared in all Phoenician cities, and more particularly in
Tyre, Sidon and Tripoli.
Near Tripoli, in Beddaoui, blown glass is manufactured in a gloomy archaic workshop where color is only brought on by the craftsman’s production of glass blown pieces aligned on improvised shelves.
On the contrary, the Sarafand workshop (located at 14km from Sidon) manufactures a clear transparent glass that is free from air bubbles.
Weaving
In weaving many methods are used with horizontal looms to create tablemats, jackets, abayas (an Arabic cloth) and caftans in wool decorated with motifs. Others use vertical looms to create tents and carpets from goat hair or sheep’s wool.
The major weaving centers in Lebanon are now Baskinta, Zouk, Barja, Bchetfine,
Baadaran, Kousba, Chhim, Fekhe, Irsal and Bakkifa.
Pottery
In Lebanon , whether dyed with yellow or gray on the coast or in the mountain, whenever man discovered how to give it form with his hand , he started creating reddish brown soup bowls, platters, the meter –high jars (that are used for conserving provisions as olive oil, vinegar, arak),coffee or tea sets ,bowls ,wine glasses, mezze plates or spouted water jars (used to cool water at any hour or season). The major ceramics workshops in Lebanon are located in Beit Chabab, Rachaya el
Fakhar, Assia, Aita
“Keep Lebanon in your mind”
A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft, is one among a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by hand or by using only simple tools with an esthetic sense born of historical, social and environmental influences.
Blown glass
It is a very ancient technique, the oldest among the handicrafts, where the glassmaker blows air into the hot molten glass and the art of transformation into attractive shapes begins. Glassmakers create many shapes and colors as water glasses, wineglasses, beer mugs, water pitchers, vases, candle sticks…
Blown glass workshops appeared in all Phoenician cities, and more particularly in
Tyre, Sidon and Tripoli.
Near Tripoli, in Beddaoui, blown glass is manufactured in a gloomy archaic workshop where color is only brought on by the craftsman’s production of glass blown pieces aligned on improvised shelves.
On the contrary, the Sarafand workshop (located at 14km from Sidon) manufactures a clear transparent glass that is free from air bubbles.
Weaving
In weaving many methods are used with horizontal looms to create tablemats, jackets, abayas (an Arabic cloth) and caftans in wool decorated with motifs. Others use vertical looms to create tents and carpets from goat hair or sheep’s wool.
The major weaving centers in Lebanon are now Baskinta, Zouk, Barja, Bchetfine,
Baadaran, Kousba, Chhim, Fekhe, Irsal and Bakkifa.
Pottery
In Lebanon , whether dyed with yellow or gray on the coast or in the mountain, whenever man discovered how to give it form with his hand , he started creating reddish brown soup bowls, platters, the meter –high jars (that are used for conserving provisions as olive oil, vinegar, arak),coffee or tea sets ,bowls ,wine glasses, mezze plates or spouted water jars (used to cool water at any hour or season). The major ceramics workshops in Lebanon are located in Beit Chabab, Rachaya el
Fakhar, Assia, Aita