Broom

Kome EL-Dabie Village

From:Naqadah

Umm Saad, a simple craftswoman, lives in the Kome Al Dabie Village in Naqada district of Qena Governorate, located in the deep south of Egypt at about 25 km north of Luxor. The scene shows her working on the shuttle "of Pharaonic design and origin", for the production of “Ferka” - traditional ancient textiles originating from this area. She stated "Every house in our village was included a traditional“Ferka” manual piece of machinery named "Noël”. It was always set up in a special room we called " Hazel", where you’d find a big pit in the ground in order to make room for legs when working on the loom. I was exposed to the various stages that were to be carried out to produce“Ferka”. The process started by dyeing the cotton or silk threads with bright natural colorful dyes,which were then spun around small handy wheels. This was followed by the lineup of the handloom threads into a geometric pattern. At that stage, my father would come and sit cuddling his "Noël"; a machine of Pharaonic origin. He extended his legs down the loom pit, stirred the bottom of the loom, and used both hands to tie the threads together, and hit the shuttle right and left. After having finished his“Ferka” pieces, at the end of each day, he would ride his donkey and head to Naqada District about 5km away from our village to deliver and sell his “Ferka” pieces to a special textiles trader there. He would always come back again to his “Ferka” room."