Hocine Bazine is a master carpet weaver from Algeria. He's also the owner of Berber Arts.

Here is his story, in his own words. 

"Since my childhood I adored weaving Berber rugs and I started learning the basics from my grandmother.

I used to watch my grandmother creating a rug throughout all stages of weaving Berber rugs. The process of drying wools, arranging lines on the hand-loom.

We are based in the heart of Algeria, in the deep south, in a city called Ghardaia, also known as the "Pearl of Oasis". The indigenous people are Berber, aka “M’ZAB”. In 1982, the city of Ghardaia was inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List as a cultural property.

We inherited weaving rugs from our Berber ancestors as it was and is still today, the main source of income for our families. My passion is to assist in providing job opportunities for many families in the city of Ghardaia and keeping my culture and legacy alive.

Since 2006, I started to learn that in workshops, I could improve some techniques that save efforts and time. Later in 2012, I had made my own work as an independent rug weaver. I participated in several local shows and in abroad and I participated many times in the Bazar of US Embassy since 2012.

Berber hand-woven rugs are made of pearl cotton fibers and sheep wool. The fibers as strong strings are woven in a vertical hand-loom.

My work helping lot of families to get rid of poverty by offering them source for living and this is in addition to keeping my culture and legacy alive is a motivation to work more and more, all those grew through me and encouraged me to save that heritage and save this noble art."

See Hocine's collection here