Cherry Buttons
The Cherry Buttons Cooperative unites over 40 women artisans crafting traditional djellaba silk buttons, a delicate handcraft passed down through generations of home-based work.
The cooperative has since expanded into horizontal loom weaving and jewelry-making, giving members new skills, income, and a rare foothold in a historically male-dominated trade.
Sustainable Technique
Djellaba Silk Button Making
In Morocco, artisans make the small knotted silk buttons that fasten djellabas, the long hooded robes worn by both men and women. The buttons are called aakad. Using a needle, women knot silk thread into tiny buttons, and a single button can take up to ten minutes. The buttons are sewn on one by one, and they traditionally pair with sfifa, the narrow handwoven braid that edges the front opening, in a combination the trade calls "the eye and the knot." The buttons are woven by hand, and in Sefrou, women's cooperatives are known for making some of the most beautiful ones in Morocco. Today they are also strung into necklaces, bracelets, and earrings.
Sustainable Technique
Hand Weaving
Handweaving interlaces lengthwise threads, known as the warp, with crosswise threads, known as the weft, to create fabric on a loom. Artisans manually control the placement and tension of the threads to develop different patterns, textures, and structures, producing textiles that reflect traditional techniques and regional craftsmanship.
