The Craft Fair in Algiers

Algiers hosts a craft fair in the Exhibition Centre in La Foire, Le Pin Maritime  Bordj El Khifan), every year showcasing crafts from all over Algeria as well as from other countries around the world. 

My daughters and a friend and I went this week and had a lovely afternoon perusing beautiful goods from places as far flung as Taiwan, Indonesia, Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali, Tonga, India, Pakistan and India, as well as from all corners of Algeria.

  

The goods ranged from mostly silver and beaded jewellery, to pictures in mosaic and in sand, to copper goods of all descriptions including one artist who specialises in creating copper trees, furniture including wood and rattan, woven clothes and carpets, and beautiful ceramic ornaments and lamps.

Some stalls were artists selling their wares and they were the most interesting.  One was a Tunisian woman selling very individual jewellery pieces which she makes herself, with each piece being a one-off.  Hers is the picture below.

I don’t think of myself as being artistic at all but I do admire the talent in other people and really enjoyed walking around and admiring all the goods.  It helped that it was a relatively small fair in comparison to the Book Fair held the previous week, and that it was quiet with not too many people in attendance so it was easy to see the goods on offer.