Kabyle Earthenware
Kabyle earthenware is the red-clay pottery of the Great Kabylia mountains of northern Algeria, a craft kept almost exclusively in the hands of women. The pots are built by hand from coils of local clay, without a wheel, then burnished with a pebble while still damp and painted before firing with geometric patterns in black, beige and red. The repertoire includes water jars, storage pots, and wide platters used to serve couscous at weddings and other feasts, and the interior of each piece is divided into circles, checkerboards, crosses and triangles that radiate from the centre. These motifs ar