This summer, Al-Bustan participated in CraftNOW Create – Summer Camp Edition! as one of twelve partner organizations offering in-person craft workshops at all of the 120 Parks & Recreation Summer Camps across Philadelphia. Al-Bustan led a craft workshop on zellij to 313 campers across West Philadelphia, South Kensington, and the Lower Northeast.
Zellij, or, زليج refers to a North African style of mosaic tilework prevalent in Moroccan architecture. Traditionally, tesserae were hand-cut and arranged to create intricate and precise geometric patterns composed of glazed clay squares, diamonds, triangles, stars, and more. For the summer camps of Parks & Recreation, Al-Bustan introduced campers to the history of the art form and geometric design in SWANA culture, and led them in a step-by-step workshop to create their very own coaster in the style of zellij to take home!
Using wooden blocks, campers first experimented with various geometric shapes and colors to create patterns. Once they had decided on a pattern, they used their creativity and understanding of geometry to recreate their pattern using mosaic tiles on their coaster. We had a blast working with campers across the city this summer with CraftNOW and hope to do so again in the future!
Check out our interns’ blog post on CraftNOW workshops here!
