Tannery in Fez, Morocco｜老式染坊，摩洛哥
Last month, I went to Morocco to visit a historical city, Fez. The city has preserved complete medina and its culture heritage since medieval age. There is another amazing old technique owned by Fez- the eldest and biggest tanneries, which are composed of many stones vessel for leather dyeing extracted from natural plants. For instance, poppy flower for red, indigo for blue, henna for orange, cedar wood for brown and mint for green.
上個月我去了位於摩洛哥的歷史古城－非斯，這個城市至今仍保留自中古世紀以來的完整古城區及文化遺址。另外還有最大也最悠久的皮革染坊，由一個個石製染缸組成，染料皆以植物成分萃取，例如紅色取自罌粟花、藍色取自木藍、橘色取自鳳仙花、褐色取自雪松木、而綠色取自薄荷。
The one I visited is Chouara Tannery that is located inside the old town. Rough hides of goat/sheep/cow/camel are first sent to tanneries by local farmers. After washing by ammonia and mixture (white vats), tanners scrub away the excess fat or hair on hides, then the clean hides are soaked in different vats by plants color for few days. Under the scorching weather, the tanners have to knead the hides by bare feet to make them soft and dye properly, which is the traditional technique in Fez for almost a thousand years. After dyeing in vats for few days, the hides are hanged on the wall for drying then are sold to local factories to produce various leather goods, such as wallets, bags, babouches, a kind of local slipper.
我去的染坊是Chouara Tannery，即坐落於古城裡面，是非斯最存最大的染坊。首先在門外即看到堆放著未經處理的皮革(最下圖左)，通常是當地小規模的農夫與染坊合作，主要有山羊/綿羊/牛/駱駝四種動物皮革。這些皮革先經由阿摩尼亞及一些混合物的洗滌(白色染缸)，像是牛及鴿子的排泄物、石灰、鹽等等，清洗後工人就會將皮革表面磨順，順便去除一些脂肪或是皮毛，然後浸泡在染缸裡幾天。頂著豔陽，工人必須浸在缸裡以人工踩的方式，目的是為了讓皮革更軟、上色更均勻，像這樣傳統染皮革的方式在非斯已經有將近一千年的歷史。浸泡幾天之後，便懸掛在牆上曝曬後再賣給工廠加工成各式不同的成品，像是皮夾、手提包、或是當地人常穿的尖型拖鞋(最下圖右)。
Abdell is the owner of a leather shop that is situated nearby the tannery. He introduced the process of dyeing for me as well as the relevant information. The tanners get MAD250 per day which is pretty good comparing to other jobs in local, that is approximately MAD2,500-3,000 per month. Working in tanneries is actually quite tough, especially the smell of mixture and rough hides. Normally tourist are given mint to refresh before going inside the tannery. ‘The finished leather goods are mainly exported to Spain, France and Italy,’ said Abdell. As for the price, a piece of leather is around MAD 300-800 that depends on different animal’s hide and different products are made from different hides based on leather’s softness and quality. I was also wondering, ‘Any chemical material are added into the dyeing?’ Abdell said there is no any harmful ingredients in dyeing vats, so no worries to cause water pollution. Now in Fez, leather dyeing is the largest manufacturing industry even a tourism sight because of its natural way and ancient tanneries legend.
Abdell是我參觀染坊的嚮導，同時也是旁邊皮革商店的老闆，他向我介紹了整個皮革的製程及相關資訊。他說再這邊工作的工人一天所得是250迪拉姆(約台幣1000)，對比其他工作大約是一個月2500-3000迪拉姆(約台幣10000-12000)，這在當地算是相當不錯的待遇。但老實說在染坊工作並不容易，尤其是未經處理的皮革及各種混合液體的味道相當難聞，所以一般遊客在進到染坊前嚮導都會給一把薄荷，掩蓋難聞的氣味。而Abdell也說，這裡出產的皮革製品大多輸出到西班牙/法國/義大利。價格方面，一張皮大約是300-800迪拉姆不等，尤以柔軟的羊皮和牛皮最貴，山羊皮和駱駝皮因為質地較硬，價錢相對比較便宜。同時我也問Abdell，植物染的成分是否還有添加任何化學藥劑，他說沒有，比起現今的染製技術，這裡的染料都是對環境無害的，所以不用擔心水污染的問題。這也是為什麼在非斯，皮革染製業是最大的製造業甚至發展成一個觀光景點，正因為這個老式染坊仍保有既天然又傳統的製皮古法。