A Most Colourful Labour of Love.


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In Afghanistan, several men are at work in a smoke-blackened room. They sit between buckets of thick grey paint, working on benches made of dark grey stone. Lonely beams of white light shine through skylights in the vaulted ceiling onto stacks of clay tiles coated with a fine layer of grey dust. Monochromatic as the scene may seem, these men have one of the most colourful jobs in the world: making tiles for Herat’s Jama Masjid (Great Mosque).

This is an amazing story, and an astonishing labour of love and art, and the saving of living history. You can read and see much more at BBC.

Comments

  1. rq says

    Leaving the tab open to check in tomorrow.
    But a couple of years ago I saw a short video on FB about making geometric tiles for mosaics, and it was absolutely, incredibly mind-blowing to watch it happen. They made it look so easy, click-click and a stack of new rhombus-shaped tiles. This is going to be a treat to read/watch!

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