Hand-Engraved Moroccan Mugs, Set of 2 from Safi, Morocco

Close your eyes and run a thumb across the side. You'll feel the pattern before you see it. This is menqoch — the design is cut into the clay with a tool, not brushed onto the surface, so every fan and every line is a groove with an edge. The glaze goes on after and settles into those cuts, pooling dark purple where it's deepest and thinning to moss green across the raised ground. That's why the colour shifts as you turn the mug in the light. Two of them, 11 centimetres tall, 8 across, a real cup of coffee in each. The base is left unglazed — raw Safi clay, slightly rough, cool against the table.

What Makes It

• Menqoch — engraved, not painted the pattern is cut into leather-hard clay with a hand tool. You can feel every line. A painted mug is smooth; this one isn't.
• Glaze pools in the cuts moss green across the surface, deepening to purple and rust inside the grooves. The depth of the cut decides the colour, which is why the two mugs read slightly differently.
• Two bands, two motifs a fan pattern around the upper body, a row of small palm forms below it, separated by a drawn line.
• Lead-free and food safe safe for daily coffee, tea, and hot drinks.
• Full mug size, sold in twos 11 cm tall, 8 across. Coffee, latte, mint tea, not espresso.

The Craft

Safi is Morocco's ceramics city, its kilns on the hill above the port. The mug is thrown from local clay, then left to dry to leather-hard — firm enough to hold a cut, soft enough to take one. That window is short. The engraver works fast within it, cutting the pattern freehand with a pointed tool, and a slip that goes too deep breaks through the wall. Glazing comes after, and the glaze does the rest of the work on its own: it runs off the high ground and collects in the grooves, so the pattern the engraver cut only becomes fully visible once the piece leaves the kiln.

Details

• Set contents: Two hand-engraved mugs
• Material: Local Safi clay, glazed
• Dimensions (each): 11 cm high × 8 cm diameter / 4.3 × 3.1 in
• Capacity (each): . 300 ml / 10 oz?
• Origin: Safi, Morocco
• Food safe: Yes lead-free

Care

Hand wash in warm water with a soft cloth. No abrasive pad it will dull the glaze sitting in the engraved lines. Avoid sudden temperature change. Dry the unglazed base fully before stacking.

What's Included

• Two hand-engraved ceramic mugs
• Origin Passport card with QR code the engraver's name, his workshop in Safi, and photographs of the cutting in progress
• Each mug wrapped separately, boxed, DHL Express, tracked to your door