Wood carving and mosaic…traditional professions by skilled craftsmen

With a wooden hammer, chisel, and simple smoothing tools, the craftsman FadloTatros is still practicing his craft by carving wood and decorating it with Islamic and regular drawings and decorations as well as applying foreign engraving with a skill that attracts attention and tourists to his shop in the Al-Duwayila area in Damascus.

In a statement, Tatros explained that he learned the craft of wood carving since his childhood and practiced it for more than 55 years , while he developed it by adding a lot of his personality to it through the manufacture of high-end and attractive decorative pieces, which still maintain their place due to the high craftsmanship, broad imagination and precision in the work they require, to carve what is distinctive and special so that the sculptures look like paintings drawn by the hand of a skilled artist.

Tatros added that his profession requires standing for a long time while working, but his enjoyment in the act of carving wood and his love for his profession pushed him to work for more than ten hours a day for many years, pointing out that knocking on wood has become for him “the symphony that he enjoys”.

In his work, Tatras relies on various types of walnut, apricot, willow, and beech wood, where he prefers carving on walnut wood to decorate Islamic inscriptions, geometric shapes, inlays, and carvings on wood. He added: “This craft helped me cover life’s expenses, such as the costs of marriage, educating my children in universities, securing their future and achieving an acceptable income for them.

I make various shapes from walnut wood, such as chair tables, paintings, jewelry boxes, hospitality boxes, and houses doors’, while I also manufacture and market my products upon request.”

For his part, Fouad Arbash continues to work with the mosaic craft that is a specialty of the old neighborhoods of Damascus, as it fascinated him and he loved working with it and learning it since he was young during the summer vacation, as he has been continuing with it for more than forty years and taught it to his children to preserve it, according to what he said.

Regarding the raw materials needed for his craft, Arbash explained that he uses several types of Damascus Ghouta wood of varying colors, such as lemon wood, walnut, apricot, poplar, eucalyptus, cypress and some imported supplies such as rosewood and seashells to manufacture many shapes such as home furniture, chairs, hospitality boxes, jewelry, and others.

At the beginning of his work, Arbash was limited to designing simple geometric shapes, then he expanded with his drawings and designs, which he executed in the form of thin slices that were glued to the piece that he had prepared in advance, noting that each mosaic piece includes a group of wood to show the drawings that were engraved and the seashells that were placed on them to give it an attractive aesthetic that drags attention.

Regarding the marketing method, Arbash indicated that he participates in internal and external exhibitions to introduce the mosaic craft, that characterizes the city of Damascus, to market his products that expatriates and tourists carry to their countries as souvenirs, and to introduce the heritage identity of the city of Damascus.

Leen Al Salman