Our Own Collection

Moroccan Bling is also the shop title of a contemporary jewelry collection coming out of Morocco. Put together by visual artist and blog manager Jess Stephens, who happily resides in Morocco. The collection is a natural progression to her attraction towards jewelry as a form of expression.

Fez’ first Pop Up shop was the latest venture platforming Moroccan Bling. Under the title of Bedouin BonBon this showcase included fine art paintings and the latest jewelry creations by Jess. Anne Graaf, art historian and writer made the following critiques on the collection.

Jess’s exciting little gallery is choc-block filled with designer jewellery pieces that have both the whiff-on-the-wind of the wild Bedouin woman of the near Atlas hills and the complexity and colour sensibility of the a Camden art graduate. There is a special end-of-festival sale on the go. And if teapots can become chandeliers, jellaba buttons can be bracelets. There is a wonderful inventiveness and re-use of some traditional items of Moroccan garb. In the collaborative spirit of the Festival, the adornments bring together Orient and Occident, the world of here and the world of there. And like the sense of oneness and community elicited by some of the music, these delicious trinkets create a hunger for the coming together of cultures. They embody the exciting frisson that can occur when different world traditions rub together. This then, the coming together of cultures, is at the heart of this year’s sacred experience at the seventeenth festival of music in Fes.

Here are some more teasers of our collection that can be found on jessiculture.etsy.com

chikhat choker

This piece titled Chikhat Choker is inspired by the outfits of  female dance performers. The chikhat dancers, from the middle Atlas region,  wear the fiber plaited belts around their clothed toresos.

jalaba button necklace

One of many jalaba button necklaces that Jess has designed. They primarily consist of hand woven jalaba buttons, common all over Morocco but predominently around old jewish towns such as Sefrou. It was the Jews who predominantly bought the tailoring craft to Morocco. This style of jalaba button necklace contains an average of 150 buttons.

Taureg crosses the circus

Taureg crosses the Circus was assembled in the south of Morocco with materials bought in the region. Its main pendant is a traditional Taureg cross; an emblem passed from father to son resembling the cross roads of life.  Two bizzar puzzle pieces hang on either side of the main pendant.