About Us
DesertArt began the way most good things do — quietly, in a family courtyard, with tools passed down by hand.
Our story starts in the medinas of Fez and the cedar forests of the Middle Atlas, where four generations of our family have shaped wood and tanned leather using methods unchanged for over a century. What began as a small atelier serving local riads and merchants grew — slowly, never hurriedly — into a workshop that ships heritage pieces to homes around the world.
We founded DesertArt LLC in 2018 to bring this work to a wider audience without compromising what makes it special: real hands, real time, real materials. Every piece we sell is made to order by an artisan we know by name, with cedar dried for a year and hides tanned with oak bark and patience.
We are not a brand built on volume. We are a small team — a few makers in North Africa, a small studio in New Mexico — committed to fair pay for our artisans, transparent sourcing, and objects built to outlast the people who buy them.
Every piece is shaped by hand in our workshop. No factories, no shortcuts.
Our artisans are paid above-market wages and share in the value of what they create.
Materials chosen for a lifetime — cedar, brass, vegetable-tanned leather, waxed linen.
Questions about a piece, a commission, or our workshop? We answer every letter ourselves.
Contact the atelier