The tenacity of Omani crafts
handicraft-workshop
Saleh Al Shaibany -
Despite fierce competition from machine-made imports, the ancient business of traditional weaving, pottery and metal work is still thriving in the inner towns of the Sultanate.
In Nizwa in the Dakhiliya region, Ahmed Al Nabhani, was mesmerising tourists as his fingers moved delicately to form curves of a rim of a large pot, called Jahlah in Arabic. Tourists also watched him kick his potter’s wheel while his hands created a shape from the damp clay. Behind him, his assistant was firing a round-shaped kiln after placing a stack of pots inside the three-metre-deep oven.