The Craft of Handmade Kilim in Fowah

On my journey to search for these Egyptian treasures, I focused on that collective mind to monitor the wisdom of the popular community besides its human and creative experience; how they choose cultural alternatives and their ability to create behaviors, and belief ideas through social, temporal, spatial and psychological influences. Also how cultural elements spread.

I found also that each governorate which I visited has a craft that distinguishes it from the others. Fowa in Kafr Al- sheikh is famous of the craft of hand-made kilim

The survival of the kilim craft in fowa stems from the attempt of the craftsmen to adopt creativity and innovation which keeps the craft , and guarantees its continuity and survival. It should be noted that the kilim makers in  Fowa developed himself to cope with those surrounding changes.  In this course, it should be pointed out  that the craft of kilim in fowa has kept its customs and traditions. It also survived and kept its steadfastness so far in the societies that are subject to the factors of renewal and change.  This stems from its superior ability to make new forms in coping with the current changes

The cultural heritage crafts contributed to the integration of The Egyptian identity since the emergence of crafts and industry in the past. Moreover, the Egyptian artist has a distinctive character from others; it reflects the identity of the Egyptian people. In addition, he was a professional craftsman with a great artistic view. All the time he shows his talent besides his own style through different ages and eras. Each era has his works that reflect his features and philosophy as well as cultural, environmental and social conditions. In many workshops regarding the Egyptian heritage crafts reflect their popular and cultural heritage. There are many sheikhs of craftsmen that inherited the same old ways from their parents, and there are morals and manners of the workshop still retain its great entity despite the influence of modern technology in some industries. But the owners of these workshops retain all their historical heritage whether moral or artistic.

One of the types of goblan kilim is characterized by the included pictorial views often derived from the environmental and Egyptian heritage as well as the double kilim. This analogy is characterized by fish and large size compared to the goblan and most of its geometric decorations, and the third type is the Manawishi kilim that is characterized by a quiet colors, and its courtyard is surrounded by a framework of geometric forms

One of my field observations during the visit is the big number of workshops, vertical and horizontal looms besides the loom of columns within almost every house in the country, as well as the work of a large base of skilled craftsmen who inherited that from one generation to the other.

This craft has helped to establish and continue its position as a river port close to Mahmoudiyah Canal. This site allowed her to contact the country from Alexandria to the middle of the delta as a transit for goods from the governor of Alexandria and Delta, vice versa

There are basic aspects that play an important role in the life of the craftsman, namely the personality of the creative craftsman and this aspect includes cognitive, and motivating indicators and variables that are related to personality traits and values adopted by the maker, as well as his distinctive and cognitive style.

There are other aspects, including the environment that affects it and the creative process itself that is going through the stage of preparation, namely learning and data collection, the stage of fermentation and the opportunity of imagination to launch creative ideas, and the stage of brightening in which ideas appear in a sudden or unexpected way, and then the stage of implementation

Then the creative result of the craftsman and the creative result may be represented by behaviors and performances and ideas and things or other creative products

The craftsman was able to use the aesthetic dimension of the popular heritage in his works, emulating the popular heritage and its symbolic meanings that give his work expressive energy

As for the role of civil associations there, Mr. Reda Yusuf, the main newsman in my trip to document the craft of Al-kilim, pointed out that the association in which he works, which is the association of future businesswomen, that the aim of the association is to care for the producers of handmade kilim, which represents more than eighty percent of the income of the residents of The City of Fowa and aims to revive and preserve the heritage.  As for the message of the association, they are working on the permanent development of the product in order to maintain its global position and improve the living of the manual worker of the craft through training and marketing programs, communications and internal and external exhibitions while providing the necessary funding for these purposes

One of the most important field observations I made in my diary of the trip is that the fowa community was dominated by craft literature and adhered to the literal values and handmade method of production of the art of the kilim

As for the process of transferring experiences in the city of fowa, it is through the elders of the old craft through training inside the workshop, or through the fowa Association inside special workshops prepared to train young people of both sexes