Quality of Morocco leathers

Walking all along the little streets into the Medina of Marrakesh, everybody can see a lot of Morocco leather bags and pouffes. Those hand bags, travel bags and pouffes are so nice, made of goatskin or cow skin. But how to know the quality level of these leathers ?

It is very exiting to look for a leather shoulder bag or a pouf into the Medina. There is a very large offer. It should be much more exiting to know and to be able to define a high quality leather. Every details are important. First of all, is it cow skin or goatskin ? Is the leather thick or no ? Is there defects such as stains and cuts ? For colored pouffes or bags, is there a color uniformity or no. How to be sure that they are all handmade ?

The Morocco leather, hand crafted in Marrakesh, are known as a high quality leather. Tannage are made with natural products. Before to make a leather piece, the leather will be colored with natural substance by the maroquinier.

Different parts of a skin

The maroquiniers have a perfect knowledge of the different parts of a skin. Parts of the periphery of a skin have generally a less quality. The "reintier" presents however the best quality leather. It is also possible to see on the photo the regularity and leather thickness of the central part of the skin.

The part called "culée" is also a high quality leather, mainly for goatskin. In contrast, the folds of the neck and the groin detract from the appearance of the leather. These flexible and thinner parts allow the movements of the animal. For the craftsman, those parts will almost always be unusable. Finally the flank are characterized by a rough grain unattractive.

As we can see, a marroquinier may only use few parts of a skin, if he wants to have a high quality leather. To make a Leather hand bag, for example, the craftsman will have to use the middle parts of a skin. The two sides of a shoulder bag are always made of a thick and smooth leather, without any stains, a Fine-grained leather. The shoulder strap and the outer pockets shall be cut in the central part in order to not be deformed during use. The inner pockets can be made of finest leather from the legs. Granular parts (flank, neck) may be used possibly as buttresses.

Leather coloration

Some maroquiniers in Marrakesh continue to realize the leather coloring operations. They know so well how to obtain a particular color. The pure blue or cyan are common color used for the bags and the ottomans. But these colors are very difficult to create. A slight excess of indigo pigment can turn the color ultramarine. Similarly, some indigo qualities produce a blue-green. If the leather craft man must make a series of poufs in the same blue color, he will need some experience to achieve the result.

Sun tanned leather

Many natural colors can be obtained with the sun. The leather is exposed to the sun, drying and getting a brown coloration. According to the time-exposure, the leather will get a light or a dark brown color. These natural colors are ones of the most popular colors. A natural color allows to appreciate the leather quality, showing the little defect of a skin, and giving to the object a real aesthetic value.

Once the leather worker has selected the parts of the leather, the cutting of a piece have to be perfect. The precise shape of a piece of leather allows a regular and resistant seam. The most beautiful stretches of skins will be used on the most visible faces of the leather object.

With a little time, it becomes fairly easy to begin to estimate the quality of the leather. We note that the thickness, grain, dyeing and homogeneity of a leather determine the quality of a bag as a leather ottoman. Finally, the thickness of the leather will be variable depending on whether a beef leather or a goatskin. But this does not necessarily mean a lower quality of the leather.

Moroccan Leather bags and poufs of Marrakesh... par ArtisanatduSud